Teacups and Sauces: A Foie Gras Odyssey

One month after our one night of tastes sensations at Tickets Bar and El Cellar De Can Roca (posts to follow), I return to Barcelona for the next chapter. This time on my eating agenda, I plam to visit a few simple tapas bar - for my stomach, wallet and heart was still recovering from the previous trip of overindulgence. Two nights and two full days of gorging on Jamon, Foie Gras and Pimientos del Padron, I was to be in heaven - or was I?

First meal was at La Pepita, a new small tapas bar in the Gracia district, with a small menu of hot and cold tapas, "tapalatas" and "pepitas" - a type of sandwich with various fillings and sauces on thinly sliced bread. We had a mix of cold plates, marinated mussels, a generous serving of foie gras mi-cuit complemented by fig vinaigrette and thinly sliced fennel. This dish was rich and slightly gamey; whilst a pumpkin and red pepper gazpacho with sliced Iberico ham was surprisingly refreshing. Croquetas wtih Iberico ham - one normal serving and one V.I.P portion(i.e with extra shaved jamon on top) was disappointing, doughy and rather heavy. A blue cheese, mushroom and pork loin pepita followed and whilst it was nice to have something warm, I have to admit that looking around the small room, plates of eggs with shaved ham, potatoes or grilled foie - if you so desired; along with other larger plates, we didn't order the best here. La Pepita was a small intimate place, with menu written on the mirror behind the bar, friendly staff and a buzzy feel and really my disappointment lay mostly in our choice of dishes.

Saturday morning started with the famous La Boqueria market on Las Ramblas and ended with a rather heavy heart and cholesterol laden body. Foie Gras overload. Grilled prawns, razorclams and padron peppers at Boqueria was followed by a trip to a small wine and tapas bar called Quimet y Quimet; a tiny space with just a few standing places at the bar and a couple of makeshift wine barrel tables and floor to ceiling of wine bottles. I like this place already. We arrived just after 12, which was ideal as not before long, the place filled up; whilst we maintained prime position in the front counter, watching the one man show carefully construct various little pinxtos like snacks. We sampled a few of these - smoked salmon, yoghurt and truffled honey, tuna tomato and fig, mushrooms and pate with truffled balsalmic vinegar as well as foie gras on a cracker with volcanic sea salt - I love small plates and sampling a multitude of dishes. My kind of place. Thinking we had not yet had enough of Quimet y Quimet, we go on to order a mini plate of meat, which included yet more foie, pate and various cold cuts; a small plate of cheese and yet more bread to accompany these. All washed down with some Muscadel wine made for an extremely enjoyable way to spend an hour.

Some obligatory shopping and walking followed to allow for digestion and further consumption. We walked up and then down the Passage de Gracia. On the way back down, late afternoon, we pass by Tapas24, a former El Bulli chef and think a snack is in order. A Bikini Commerc 24 - a posh toastie, filled with jamon iberico, bufalo mozzarella and black truffles along with their McFoie burger - a mini burger with a beef pattie that was mixed with foie gras and was accompanied by an indulgent foie gras ganache, was in order. At EUR9.50 each, this was rather expensive, although I was happy to pay for it until I see a chef bring out a bag of what appeared to be frozen pre-made toasties. The appeal was lost as fast as this little snack was consumed.

The weekend so happened to be holding the Menja de Mercat, an annual food and wine festival with various traders and plenty more to eat. More generous servings of foie gras, oysters, chorizo, chicken dumplings with foie, smoked salmon and cakes, to name but a few. We definitely could not have dinner, or could we. Settling back to the hotel, with the chef being a reknown pastry chef, we have intentions of dessert and tea. We end up however, with grilled foie and mushroom consomme, a well cooked venison fillet followed by chocolate souffle and creme catalan. It was this last piece of foie that did it... I did not want anymore foie gras...least not until tomorrow.

Tomorrow came...more we had. Back to the market and another mini burger, this time with wagyu beef and foie at a fraction of the price. However, this truly was all we could manage.

The final place I had wanted to return to was La Fonda, a place reknown as much for its queues as it was for its paella, generous servings and low prices. We queued, we ordered the black rice paella and we ate. The rice was tasty and moreish, and it was nice to have a sit down proper meal.

I did not think I could tire of foie gras - I did, but, I got over it fairly quickly.

La Pepita

C/ Còrsega, 343

08037 Barcelona, Spain

932 38 48 93

La Boqueria

C/ La Rambla, 91

08002 Barcelona, Spain
933 18 25 84

Quimet y Quimet

Carrer del Poeta Cabanyes, 25

08004 Barcelona, Spain
934 42 31 42

Tapas 24
C/ Diputació, 269
08007 Barcelona, Spain
934 880 977