Curling Custard

Catalan cuisine is considered to be up there with the best in the world, and Barcelona is at the center of Catalan cuisine. The city is well known for its diverse culture, but it also offers equally diverse culinary talents, as illustrated by Abac restaurant, awarded 2 Michelin stars in 2009 under Chef Xavier Pellicer, or the Roca brothers' one- Moo starred with Chef Felipe Llufria located in the Hotel Omm.

There are many more city restaurants but also many tapas bars and offering an excellent choice of Catalan delicacies that you should not be missed by focusing too much on the grand restaurants.

Barcelona visitors who enjoyed the delights of our national dishes that I love Catalan cuisine, and many returning to Barcelona, just for food. There is something about how Catalans approach cooking and eating is almost respectful, and woe betide anyone who tries to hurry a Catalan at the end of a meal.

The Mediterranean diet is Catalan in nature, olive oil used for frying, and lots of milk and vegetables used, such as eggplant (aubergine), tomatoes, garlic and red pepper. It also uses bread and pasta, a variety of fish such as cod, anchovies and sardines, beans and chickpeas, and also a variety of meats, including pork, poultry and veal.

These ingredients are used to produce culinary creations from new chemicals very simple but tasty dishes that are full of flavor. An example of the latter is very simple to do is pa amb tomaquet, a rustic bread toasted and rubbed with more squishy ripe tomato and garlic. Olive oil is then added to salt as seasoning. The idea is to form a tomato sauce without actually making the sauce, and the result is absolutely delicious. Like many Catalan dishes, it is very easy to make yet tastes heavenly.

Further complexity is considerably escudella i carn d'olla, a traditional Catalan dish usually served on Sant Esteve (Saint-Etienne or the day after Christmas). It contains many ingredients, often incorporating meat left on Christmas, and especially feet and pig ears, bacon, beef marrow and bone of ham, chicken, veal, sausage and more, cooked in a broth with beans, potatoes, cabbage, saffron, parsley, thyme and a particular type of large shell pasta known as pebbles.

It is served in two or three parts, the first being the broth, meat second and possibly third is vegetables. This is a substantial meal and the cooking for cold winter evenings. Not all Catalan dishes are as important as this, of course, and fricando is a beautiful form of veal cooked in a sauce of wild mushrooms.

It tastes absolutely divine, and is obtained by very slow cooking veal shoulder or "Llata, and fungi must be moixernon Catalan, or fungi Saint-Georges. The veal melts in your mouth, but it must be cooked slowly, like so many Catalan dishes. People in Catalonia do not rush their kitchen, both cooking and eating are serious business.

Calasots are small onions that are less bulbous onion, and cooked on the grill grate fire. The outer layers become black, and then they are wrapped in newspaper to cook. They look very soft, and when the outer layers of black are removed, they are deliciously juicy, especially when dipped into salvitxada. This is a sauce made with almonds, tomatoes, peppers, garlic, olive oil and vinegar. They are so juicy that many restaurants serve them with a bib. They can also be eaten with bread and meat grilled on charcoal after Calasots.

Catalan cu.