Osteria Acquacheta #tbtmeal

I did it again! I disappeared. No more. NO MORE I SAY. Hopefully coming back for real now, with some new ideas. The first one is the throwback Thursday meals. Basically, #tbtmeal posts will be posts about places I have been to more than six months ago. I know, that was a clever way of keeping from dying of shame for not posting anything. 

Oh well. The first #tbtmeal of this blog will be one that I have been dying to post about... and one of the best meals of my life, from when I was in Italy. 

Montepulciano was incredibly empty. After visiting Siena, Pisa, and other tourist-filled cities, Montepulciano actually looked a little bit like a ghost town. There was no one in the streets! The day was not that pretty when we got there, it was super cold and cloudy, which contributed to my impression. That was the only city we decided to spend the whole day at, I don't even remember why anymore – probably because my mom decided it was the most interesting one.

Wine and cheese tasting

We had a tip going in the city – the best part about traveling with my mom is that we are both suckers for gourmet tips, which means that if someone recommends a restaurant in a city we have never been to we will most likely tailor our visit around finding said restaurant and eating there. It wasn’t very different with Montepulciano, where we were recommended the Osteria Acquacheta. First thing we did was go to the tourism office to get a map and find out where the restaurant was. After spotting it on the map, we went into the city gates (these medieval Tuscan cities almost always have a gate). The day was basically spent going into churches and into wineries, where they provided FREE WINE/BREAD/SAUSAGE/OLIVE OIL TASTINGS. Yes. I would have gone into every single store if we weren’t so easily guilt tripped by free tastings. Since every store we went in we had to buy something, we only went into three or four I think – anyway, it was worth it.

The entrance

And then we reached the restaurant. It was a small little door at the end of a narrow street. We were very surprised noticing a full house, when the city seemed so empty. We asked if we needed to do a reservation – they only had a 2:30pm appointment. Stunned, we accepted it and proceeded to look at old buildings and go to tastings. At 2:15 we got to the door of the restaurant (need I say famished?) and still had to wait around 40 minutes to be seated.

The restaurant had one rule: each person had one glass to drink wine or water. If you want to drink water, finish your wine. If you want to drink wine, finish your water. No fanciness! I was already excited about it – I love simple places. We shared a big table with another group, which never bothers me because I usually speak a language no one understands anyway, so it’s not like I have no privacy (although I don’t think I would be bothered by it if they did, honestly.) The kitchen of the restaurant was at the back and completely open. They had a huge brick oven in there, where they grilled their meat.

Appetizer

The house specialty was bistecca fiorentina. I posted about bistecca before, on the Totò post – check it! – we ate it as part of our New Year’s Eve meal. Well this one was different; better, tastier, more delicious, amazing, wonderful… sorry where was I? Oh yeah, house specialty. But let’s start in the beginning. For some insane reason that I cannot fathom right now – it has been more than a year after all – we decided to have a four-course meal. Maybe it wasn’t a decision, maybe it just happened. All I know is I started my path to happiness with fried goat cheese balls paired with artichoke cream. Fortunately, no one in my family really likes goat cheese, so I got to enjoy all of that amazingness by myself (excuse me for being selfish). It was just... so delicious.

After we had the appetizers (each of us had one), we went into the primi piatti, a.k.a. the pasta. I ordered Pici pasta with duck ragù. Pici pasta is similar to spaghetti, but thicker and with a hole that runs in the middle of it. Doing a little bit more research into it, I found out it’s a hand-rolled pasta that originated in Siena and is typical from that region. HA! Learning about other culture while eating = ultimate goal in life. I ordered duck ragù because I wanted something different from all the truffle sauces that I was eating. I liked it, but I also found it slightly overwhelming – I seem to have had amnesia at the time, since I don’t like duck that much. I don’t really know why I ordered that plate. Well, I did, and it didn’t let me down, I let myself down (drama).

Pici pasta with duck ragù

The owner and the bistecca (whole)

After eating an entire plate of pasta, we said: “Why not have some meat?” and ordered the bistecca. The bistecca is ordered by its weight, and the server (usually the owner of the place) brings it raw to the table for you to evaluate its size. It was a beautiful cut of meat. Beautiful. The owner was so cool too, he walked around the table, serving, talking to people, mocking his friends (I guess) and being nice. He even let me take a picture of him getting ready to cut a piece of the bistecca (oh yeah they’re freshly cut, ahem). Then the meat came in all of its glory and it was raw. It was so raw it was cold in the middle. I am not a fan of raw meat (I order meats “medium”, as opposed to the generally Brazilian preferred “medium-rare”), so I was worried. Maybe I wouldn’t like it after all. And then I took a bite. And then…

I died.

LOOK AT THIS

The meat tasted amazing. I never tasted anything like it. I noticed there was barely any seasoning to it, just a little bit of salt and pepper, but it was extremely tasty nevertheless. It was very quickly seared in the oven, which left the outside almost crispy, but the inside soft and juicy. JUICY AND DELICIOUS! It didn’t matter I was full, I had just eaten a plate of pasta and really, I wasn’t that hungry anymore. That meat was SO GOOD. It was so good, there was no way it would be left behind in my plate. Excuse me for not wasting amazing food.

Get this: the meat came with a side. A side of CHEESE - yeah. Grilled cheese topped with pears. It is a match made in heaven. The sweetness of the pear complements the cheese so perfectly. It looks pretty too!

Grilled cheese topped with pear

Dessert

And then we ordered dessert. I think we got several different things: a ricotta cheese cake thing covered in chocolate and nuts, another covered in caramel and I ordered biscotti and some type of liquor cause I was dying and I needed help making the food go down. After a shot of espresso, off we went to a loooong walk so that we could digest all that amazingness into our bodies’ system.

Honestly, I have no idea how much that entire meal cost. I’m guessing maybe a lot but it was worth it? Dad? Hehehehe

They have a website where you can check out a sample of their menu if you plan to go there (which you should!)… It seemed reasonable to me. It is a small place, so it’s less likely you’re going to get ripped off? I guess? In any case, it’s worth it. Absolutely worth it.

City: Montepulciano, Italy

Restaurant: Osteria Acquacheta

Food: Amazing

Service: Great

Price: €€ (?)

Enoteca Corsi

I am procrastinating. 
I haven't been posting lately basically because of the ridiculous amount of work I have for the next month and a week until graduation. But today I had to procrastinate a little. I mean, I needed to. Whatever, I want to. It turns out writing about food is much more fun than writing about Colombia's drug trafficking problem, Cuba's relationship with the U.S. or U.S. intervention in Latin America. And also waaaay more fun than applying for jobs. And less stressful, might I add.

So, today I write about the day I spent by myself in Rome. Beautiful Rome. After two delicious weeks in Venice, Florence and Tuscany, my family and I came back to Rome, where my parents needed to catch their flight back to the US and A. My flight got out of Paris only two days later, so I stayed in Rome for one last day. It worked out perfectly because I would get to see the Sistine Chapel - which I hadn't done five years previously when I had been to Rome for the first time.

The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel

You know what? I was a little disappointed. I must acknowledge that my experience was probably something uniquely disturbing but by the time I got into that Chapel, I was so mad I didn't even enjoy myself. It turns out they only open it during certain times of the day. BUT they don't let you know that. Oh, no! They make you go on and on, always pointing in the same direction, which leads into a circle that never ends BECAUSE THE CHAPEL IS CLOSED. They could've just told me that. Instead, they decided to make me walk the same exhibitions five times! I was so hot from walking around the museum I took off my sweater and eventually LOST IT. So, as I said, by the time I got into the Chapel I was just mad. Plus, you have to look up to see the most famous painting one - which is minuscule! The one of David's finger touching God's? Yeah, small. 

I don't know. Maybe it was the result of hunger (of course) and the being tricked thing, but I saw things that were much more appealing to me. Monet's paintings at the Musée d'Orsay, for example. Or his garden at the National Gallery. Honestly, I am not as moved by art as I probably should be. Live music does it much more for me than art does. Although I do like going to museums, I am not as emotional as I am when there's a band playing. Stop judging me!

But what is important is what happened after I got out of that horrible place and went straight to eat! I went to a place called Enoteca Corsi, right next to the hotel I had stayed with my parents, close to the Pantheon. From the name, one already infers that it is a wine place. I read in an article from the 90s (which was framed and hung right next to my table) that around then there was a move for enotecas to start serving lunch, which were generally homemade meals for a much cheaper price than local restaurants would charge. They only serve meals during lunchtime, however, which is what makes them different from regular restaurants. 

I was there at the right time then (1:30 in the afternoon). From a very appealing list of choices, I decided to go with the homemade meatballs with peas and roasted potatoes, all with extra olive oil to top it off (you can actually see it in the picture.) I have to say one thing first - I don't like peas. After I ordered this dish, I was asking myself what was wrong with me that I just ordered meatballs with stupid peas? Why not pasta?! (probably because I had already been eating pasta every day for the past 3 weeks but shhhh)
Turns out - you guessed right - the peas were actually a great addition to this meal. Since the meatballs had so much flavor and the potatoes were seasoned with rosemary, I would go for the peas almost like they were a palate cleanser. Seriously. The potatoes were delicious. They weren't crunchy nor mushy, and the rosemary worked perfectly with the meatballs. It did taste like a good home-cooked meal. 

The restaurant

The place was small, but not claustrophobic and the service was great. Although I must say I didn't really understand how exactly these places are supposed to have a more agreeable price. This plate, although simple it may seem, certainly wasn't a bargain. From what I remember it was around 14€, which sincerely is expensive.

Hidden little place

After dropping my stuff at the hotel, I decided to go for a walk and then back to a gelato place I had visited when I was with my parents. Happy decision. San Crispino is a small, almost hidden "gelateria" two streets down from the Fontana di Trevi. Their gelatos are divine. Simply divine. 

I decided to get a pistachio (I love pistachio gelato) and grape ice cream. Which were heavenly. Delicious. Delectable. Tasty. The shit. However you wanna put it.

I love Italian gelato.

The inside 

Yes - I took a picture of my gelato. I'm not even sorry.

The rest of the day I spent strolling around and doing sight-seeing. I got to see this around sunset:

Saint Peter's Basilic - NO FILTER 

Great ending for our Italy family trip. I miss it - the food, the time we got to spend together, the picture-taking, the making-fun of my mom, the beautiful cities... But especially the food :)

Restaurant: Enoteca Corsi

City: Rome, Italy

Food: Great

Service: Good

Price: €€

Also featured on this post was Il gelato di San Crispino - holy gelato! 

City: Rome, Italy

Gelato: Divine

Service: Super-friendly

Price: Cheap!!

Recipease

Ok, this is embarassing. So school has been kicking my ass and I actually almost forgot I had a blog and a lot to post about. And then I remembered I haven't even talked about my amazing time in London yet!

I went to London mid-December to visit a friend and some family and it was great! I ate so many delicious things, and visited so many places I had never even dreamed of seeing in my life. Now that i think of it, the entire time I was traveling (read: all 4 months I spent in Europe) everything felt so dreamlike that it seems very distant now. But I've only been back for a little more than a month, which is crazy - feels like forever.

Street art at Brick Lane

Back to what I saw and ate. For me, the best thing about London was the Brick Lane Market. My friend took me there on my first day and she could not have made me happier. The "market" is basically a flea market all over the street (Brick Lane). They sell everything and anything. But the best part is the big warehouses in the middle (or sides) of the market. Inside each warehouse you find dozens and dozens of food stands. From all over the world. It's insane. Right next to one another, you have Venezuelan food, Vietnamese food, Turkish food, Chinese food, Japanese food... the list goes on with much more exotic "food" than I could think of. I loved it and at the same time hated it.

YUM

 I loved because, duh, there it is, the most diverse selection of cuisines I will probably see in my entire life, and all of it is cheap and looks delicious. The environment is super chill, even though it was really full you never feel overwhelmed - unless you're like me and love food then you were just overwhelmed by the amazingness of the existence of such a place. 
But I HATE it. I hate it because it's so far from me now. And also because there is no way I could've chosen what I wanted to eat. Thankfully, my friend already had two places in mind, a Turkish crepe and a Japanese omelet. Sweet Jesus. I don't have any pictures because honestly I was starving and wanted to eat that so bad. But trust me: they were delicious. The Turkish guys at the crepe place were really funny, they would shove samples of their food into other peoples mouths... hilarious! Stuff like that could never happen in the US... :(
For dessert, we shared this beautiful and delicious carrot cake, from a booth called Sweet Food. The rest of the day we spent walking around the area, taking crazy pictures in a photo booth and designing our own Christmas cards...

Big Ben and Parliament

My last day in London we decided to go for a walk around Notting Hill. I love the movie and was really curious to see that part of town. My friend knows every single thing there is to know, including the best bookshops! We also went with a tip from a Brazilian blog, Escapismo Genuíno , to go visit Jamie Oliver's Recipease.

Recipease is a store/market/restaurant/kitchen where everything is happening at the same time. It is beautiful, its outside walls are all made of huge glass windows. When I walked in, the first thing I saw was food, basically sandwiches and small bites for sale. Beyond it, there was a huge kitchen island with chefs in the hollow middle. Around the island, on the countertops, there were several place-sets full of ingredients, tools and containers - for the class that was about to take place. Recipease offers cooking classes for everyone, and has a variety of options on what cuisine you can learn about too. And afterwards you get to eat what you cook, with a glass of wine. I thought it was really nice, but kind of expensive - for special occasions, I would say. It must be an amazing experience.

I wanted to dive in.

Besides the finger food and kitchen, there was also a market of fresh imported produce AND a kitchenware store (sold everything kitchen, from aprons to knives - there was even a heart-shaped chopping board.) Upstairs, There is another huge kitchen island like the one downstairs, and the restaurant. First, the decoration of the whole place is genius. It is so cozy and comfortable inside, even at the market and shop parts. The restaurant part has little niches full of sofa pillows for people to get comfy in and shelves full of books (by Jamie Oliver and others.) 

The decoration

More decoration - restaurant part

The choice was hard to make, but I wanted something different and inexpensive, so I went with carrot pancakes with hummus, feta and mache (or flowerdale sprouts?) salad. Delicious!!!! The meal in itself was filling but not stuffing and I loved the presentation. I like hummus, but too much of it can be dangerous, because I feel it can get tiring. However, the feta cheese and the salad balanced it out perfectly and the meal was delicious! For around £8, I thought it was reasonably priced. Definitely recommend it! 

Preeetty

Restaurant/Market/Cooking Lessons/Kitchenware shop: Recipease
City: London, England
Food: Good
Service: Good
Price: £

Totò - Happy New Year!

Happy New Year (22 days late)! After a long break, which was spent in lots and lots of restaurants acquiring new information for my blog, hence eating, I have the pleasure of writing this post. I hope I will accomplish my goal of awing everyone with this new post. Not because of my writing skills, which haven’t changed much, but by the food I have to present. This meal, ladies and gentlemen, was epic.

First, I must say I come from a culture where every single type of food can be sold in “all you can eat” style. In Brazil, we have the famous churrascarias, where meat is served to your table during the entire length of your meal – I know, amazing! This concept evolved through different kinds of cuisine, so now we have “all-you-can-eat” style sushi, pizza, pasta, and even beer! How crazy is that? You pay a certain amount and you sit at the bar and they keep the beers coming. Again: I know, amazing!

I recounted this to demonstrate that I am used to eating a lot. I love eating (big news), and I also like to get my money’s worth, so I would always dive in – who are we kidding? I still dive in!  So it was surprising that I – my extremely glutton self – would be impressed (and a little scared) of the Italian-style meals.

Me and my handsome "baby" brother

My dear family and I reunited on Christmas’ Eve in Rome, to start a trip of a lifetime through the beautiful country that is Italia. After Rome, we went to Venice and then to Florence for New Years. Our most pressing problem when we got to Florence was to find a good restaurant (we had an extensive recommended list) to have our celebratory capodanno meal on the night of the 31st. After seeing a lot of crazy-priced deals, we bumped into this little place called Totò which had a long list of plates and wine and champagne included in the 65€ per person fee. I know it seems like a lot, but the prices were not going any lower than that in the other restaurants. The place looked very Italian and smelled amazing when we walked in at 4 in the afternoon to make our reservation, so my parents decided to go with it. The menu was at follows:

·      A cart of antipasto

·      Gnocchi with truffle sauce and porcini mushrooms

·      Potato tortellini

·      Bistecca à la Fiorentina (T-Bone steak their style)

·      Florentine sausage

·      Deep-fried artichokes

·      House salad

·      House dessert

·      Wine

·      Champagne glass

·      Coffee

Let’s begin: the cart of antipasto was actually a cart! In the middle of the restaurant! With dozens of choices of antipasto! There was shrimp cocktail, octopus ceviche, prosciutto rolled in a breadstick, deep-fried olive-stuffed olive (!!!!!!!), chicken salad, roasted eggplant slices, boiled shrimp… and many other things that I couldn’t even try because I knew there was more food coming. And it did.

Genius!

The second part of the meal, also called “first course” in Italy, is almost always pasta. Amazingly enough, in the menu they had two different pastas listed – from which I assumed we would pick one, but no! Both came. Happiness… I have to say, the Potato-filled Tortellini (one of Tuscany region traditional plates) was delicious, but I am a sucker for mushrooms, especially when they are in a truffle sauce. Seriously, what can compete with that?! Mushrooms AND truffles. On colorful gnocchi. Beautiful! 

The third part of the meal, called “second course”, is generally a type of protein of some sort, such as beef, lamb, rabbit, sometimes fish. In our fortunate case, we got half of a T-bone steak grilled in Florentine fashion – a.k.a. wonderfully – and a Florentine sausage. The beef was very tender and cooked to perfection, still very red on the inside (they way it’s supposed to be) but almost crispy on the outside. It wasn’t the best we ate, but it was pretty good. The sausage was very different to me, used to the American southern usually over-processed sausages, because you could kind of feel the meaty texture in it. It was also divine. To accompany our outrageous meat selection we got fried artichokes and salad, which I obviously didn’t even touch – I was in too deep to care.

For meat lovers only

Artichokes

By the end of this, we were all on the verge of a food coma. Imagine pairing all of this with some bread and wine… two whole bottles of wine for three people (my mom barely drinks). But there was still dessert! The house dessert of choice was profiteroles. And then the glass of champagne came. I couldn’t drink all of it. Swear to God. I just couldn’t. There was too much in my system.

After this eating marathon, we had to walk somewhere, just to make this settle a little. The city was packed and there were free concerts going on in six different squares in the city for the 3809834723 tourists that were there (approximate number). We found a nice little spot in the Republic’s square, where there was a band playing bossa nova and then a jazz band came up. Dancing in the below freezing temperature of that Florentine night, we celebrated the coming of a new year, happy to be together.

Restaurant: Totò

City: Florence, Italy

Food: Great

Service: Good

Price: OK

Le Gil

Église Notre-Dame

After writing so much about other cities and feeling the suddenly creeping moment of my departure, I would like to post about another good restaurant in Poitiers. Although I haven't stayed long enough and haven't had the money that would allow me to try all the places I have passed by and interested me, I managed to have some good food here. Everyone seems to have a love/hate relationship with Poitiers, which in my opinion is this cute little French town (not so little, about 120.000 people) in the Poitou-Charentes region. When I arrived, Poitiers was all I imagined it to be and more. At the start I couldn't deal with the medieval buildings and look of things, I would squeal every five steps I took - I'm surprised I made any friends here at all. I live in the center of the town, in a very old building... next to me is a house from the 16th century and in the end of my street the Cathédral Saint Pierre, from the 13th century. It's so much history bundled up together that it takes some time to get used to. Now my friends and I joke that anything built from the mid 1800's is almost brand new. I mean there is a church from the 4th century here... how mind-blowing is that? 

I believe that it's only when people visit me that I am reminded of that early stage of amazement I was in the beginning. Unfortunately I tend to get used to the most stunning of views after living in them for a while - I would think most people do. So good thing for me my Brazilian friend that lives in London came to visit! Her excitement while we walked through the streets I am now so used to taking on every day made me revisit that same feeling. And I loved it.

Cathédrale Saint Pierre

I took advantage of the fact she was here and ate out a lot. One of the places I took her was Le Gil, a cute little bistro on the Charles de Gaulle square. Every day of the week they have a "plat du jour" for 8€, which isn't bad. I had eaten there before with my mom and the crème brulée was perfect - I risk saying the best I've had in France so far.

The first time, the choice of the day was a diced turkey in a creamy sauce, served with spaghetti, a tomato purée and spinach. The food was great! But the best part was the presentation. The plate was organized and the tomato and spinach came in little balls. I love eating out of beautifully set plates. Don't they say "We always eat first with our eyes"? Or is that only in my country? Well, I definitely eat first with my eyes. If the food looks weird or is badly presented, it will probably not taste as good as it is. If it is well-presented, maybe it might even taste better, just from the pleasure of looking at it. After the main course, we ordered a crème brulée which was divine! The crust was perfect and warm, the cream was cold and it all tasted incredible. That's why I went back again!

Preeetty!

When my friend was here, the choice was a kind of braised beef arranged in a stick, with diced potatoes and salad (some leafs in a sauce and some carrots). The meat was delicious, specially now that I eat so little of it - I only appreciate it more when I do. The potatoes were crunchy but not greasy, sprinkled with some herbs. The salad, well, it's salad. It's hard to say that salad is great. I felt the potatoes were a great combination with the meat sauce, which was strong, so they cleaned the palate a little. I loved it, my friend loved it, we were ready for the crème brulée! 

Preeetty again!

And it came, in all its glory. I knew what to expect, but she didn't. It was as delicious as before, except that they made a change - no whipped cream ball on top anymore! What the hell? So it looked kind of plain, but it was great. I just liked the presentation of the first one better. Below you will see what I am talking about... 

Before

After

See what I mean?! Crazy people, giving up on whipped cream ball, powdered sugar and the little green leaf. One would feel much more comfortable paying 5.90€ for the first crème brulée than for the second one, all because of the presentation. Anyway, the both were great. Both put a smile on my lips and filled my heart with joy. 

The desperation came later when my friend insisted we should go again so she could have another one, this time with some coffee. No deal! They are only served after food, as a dessert. Who are you, crazy person that wants to have dessert at five in the afternoon? The French have weird ways of serving sometimes... I don't get this strange rule. My friend was obviously very upset but became calmer after we bought some éclairs to drown our sorrows. Not bad.

I will definitely miss France. Not just the food, although OBVIOUSLY the food. The people, the feel, even the language. I was in Germany this weekend (post about sausage and glühwein coming!) and whenever I heard French being spoken I felt a little warmth feeling (little because come on, I was in Germany, there can never be a huge warm feeling, it's too cold). I will also miss the friends I made here, the people from all over the world and the whole experience of being in a different culture... And I will miss Poitiers! I am leaving Poitiers, but Poitiers will never leave me! "Aller Poitiers!!!"

City: Poitiers, France
Restaurant: Bistrot Le Gil
Food: Good
Service: Good
Price: €

Los Caracoles

Boyfriend and I decided to continue our little vacation with a visit to Spain. First we went to Barcelona and then headed to Madrid, where we had friends and family. It was interesting to see the contrast between the two cities, in architecture, language and, most importantly, prices. 

The performance in front of the Cathedral

The fact is, Barcelona is more of a tourist city than Madrid. Every corner you turn in Barcelona there is someone doing a performance, a concert, playing something. At one point, we stumbled upon a performance of an orchestra (!) in front of the Cathedral of Santa Eulalia, probably playing some traditional style of music from the region, because there were circles of elderly people dancing. It was so amazing! And then we walked ten steps far from them and there were two guys doing break dancing to the sound of "tchetchereretche" - to those who don't know what this means, it's the incredibly catchy brazilian song "Balada Boa" that has been played all over Europe. Five steps, there were two guys playing Spanish guitars in a small alley... oh I wish I had seen more Spanish guitar players... regret number one. Barcelona also had some tourist traps. For example, the prices in the menu will not always be the price you pay. If you are sitting outside, you will pay 10% more of the price that is written on the menu. Obviously, no one will tell you that until you actually ask. Being the amazing tourists we were, we only found out about it on the last meal we had (of course). Other than that, it is an incredible city. The works of Gaudí are insanely beautiful, and even more impressive when compared to their surroundings, which are not plain at all. Here are some of them: the Casa Batlló, Sagrada Família and La Pedrera

Aside from the beautiful architecture, Barcelona also has amazing food. I mean, amazing ham. I mean, AMAZING jamón!!!!!!!!!!! I can't even explain how much I love the Spanish jamón ibérico. I made a point of eating it every single day for at least one of my meals. The result was I didn't eat a lot of paella (regret number 2). But it doesn't matter, I wouldn't have done it any differently. The Spanish know what they are doing. They classify their pigs for what they EAT. I'm dead serious. Depending on what the pig eats, the ham is more or less expensive, because it tastes different. How hardcore is that?!

yumyumyum

Instead of eating it at restaurants, where you pay 15€ for a plate of jamón that is not even the best one, we found a small shop close to the hotel where we could buy 100grams for around 7€. A hundred grams of ham is a LOT of ham. It was great! Needless to say, we were at the shop a lot, even if we just spent 3 days there. One night, we bought a baguette at the baker, then we bought the jamón, some fancy cheese and a bottle of wine at the shop, and then went to a supermarket and bought arugula and tomatoes. BAM! Budget fancy dinner for less than 20€!

"Los Caracoles", however, is no place for budgeting. One of the oldest and most famous restaurants in town, it is quite hidden in one of the perpendicular streets from the famous Ramblas. On the outside, it is just a simple, small old-looking little door. When you get in, you go through a bar - at least we did because we went to dinner super early and it had no lines - and then through the kitchen (!) to get to your tables. The restaurant must have three floors of seating, which was a huge surprise. Considering the amount of people they had waiting at the bar when we left, I would suggest making reservations. 

Snails

We started with caracoles (snails), because we had never tried it and we were curious. I have to say, they were good, but nothing special. They came in a brown, earthy sauce with a little bit of parsley. It wasn't what we were expecting... very plain. Funny fact: they served it with two breads, in the shape of a snail! AH - another tip about Spain: they put bread on your table, but don't be fooled: you pay for it (only if you eat it). Yes, they bring to your table even if you don't order it. Yes, in every single restaurant they make you pay for it. So, if you don't want to pay, you can't touch it. This system seems very unfair to me. I mean, you just brought me bread, unexpectedly, didn't say anything about why is it there and then left. How do you expect me not to eat it?! It's bread! Either make it free or don't bring it without me ordering it. Or, at least, tell me I'm gonna pay for it! As I said, we were the perfect tourists.

Snail-shaped bread

For our main plate, we ordered the seafood paella. We had been having long discussions about paella the whole time we were there, because the paellas we saw seemed very different from what we had eaten in Brazil or the States. The rice wasn't bright yellow, but brownish. It looked more like a risotto than like a paella, because there was a lot of sauce. Still, we were in Spain, and we wanted to try it to see why it was so different. And we weren't disappointed.

It had mussels, shrimp, crayfish, and i'm gonna say calamari too... and some other seafood that I did not identify, but tasted good. The plate was delicious, but very different from the paellas I have eaten. My conclusion was that probably there is another part of Spain that makes paellas differently, and that's where we got it from. Nonetheless, we were happy with the meal we had and ready for dessert! I was, anyway. I chose what they call crema catalana, a dessert that resembles the French crème brulée. Since the last one is my favorite dessert ever, I had absolutely no problem enjoying the catalan cream. It was very rich, with a soft, full texture under the crispy sugary crust. Yum...

Crema Catalana

We had a great night and a delightful meal. The only downside of the whole night was the waiters, a little bit. Maybe I have a weird age complex, but I feel that because we are young, at times we don't get the best treatment in restaurants - especially more expensive ones. I find it very annoying, since to me the quality of the service should always be better than the quality of the food. To me, service changes everything. If you are at a restaurant and the service is amazing, you just want to love everything about your time there. At "Los Caracoles", they were not very friendly during the night and took a while to clean dirty plates. Until then I was not that bothered. But when the waiter came to give us the check, he very "kindly" pointed out that the price did not include the tip. That was just plain rude. Yes, I know it only includes the 10% you make from every single table. If I were to give you a tip, you just lost half of it right there. It was really a shame, because we having such a pleasant night. 

And it was our last one in Barcelona, too. Then we headed to Madrid, where the food was cheaper, as was the beer and we were WAY more prepared for the tourist traps. We had a great time, even though it was freezing cold. Since it was the end of our trip, we were on a tight budget, and did not eat out that much. We found a place called "Museo del Jamón", where the glass of beer was 70 cents (!!!!!!) and a jamón sandwich was 1€ (!!!!!!). Granted, the "sandwich" was more like one slice of ham inside of plain bread. Still, it was one euro. Again, it became our favorite place to go to (I wasn't joking when I said I made a point of eating jamón every single day.) They have restaurants all over the city, which was even better. We would just wish for it to appear and there it was: 

Look for it if you're there! It's not hard to find at all. 

Oh, Spain, you treated me well, even with your little traps to trick me into spending more money with you. Hope to see you soon!

City: Barcelona, Spain

Restaurant: Los Caracoles

Food: Great

Service: Average

Price: €€€