March 4, 2007

• Spain, Feb 2007

  Was in Spain in Feb for about a week.  5 days in Valencia for an exhibition, and 1 .5 days in Barcelona.  Here are some of the wonderful foods I was lucky to get my hands on.

  Look at how red these shrimps are.  Its prepared simply by steaming with a little salt and garnished with lemons.  Boy oh boy, they were SWEEEEEET!!

  

  This is the classic Italian dish of Parma ham and mozzarella cheese chunks.  Yes, yes.  I know I'm in Spain.  This restaurant was near our hotel and it was FAB!!!  La Luna Rosa is the name.

  

  Steamed mussels garnished with parsley, chopped tomatoes, and freshly ground black pepper.  Not a mussel fan, but none of the shelled fish after taste that I don't like.

  

  Clams and Linguini.  The linguine is made of squid ink liguine and semolina linguine.  A lovely light and not overly creamy clam sauce, this dish's only fault is its portion.

  

  Deep fried shrimp garnished with lemon halves.  They are deep fried to point of such crispness that the shells are like chips, YET the meat is not over cooked.  Not an easy feat by itself, yet the chef manages to pull it off while maintaining another Italian simplicity at its finest.

  

  I feel horrible that I don't remember the name of this restaurant.  A wonderful hole in the wall restaurant by the Valencian pier, they serve EXCELLENT paella.  Not too heavy, the spices bring out the best in the seafood by not overwhelming our senses.  So good that I took 3 shots of it.

   

  A classic Valencian salad.  Like a cobb salad, it is an assembled salad.  Contains tomatoes, olives, sliced boiled eggs, carrot juliennes, lettuce, arugula, radishes, juliennes of beets, fennel, and TUNA (my favorite part).  Drizzled with NOTHING.  So simple, so satisfying, I do miss it so.

  

  The Spanish classic of shrimp, garlic, olive oil, and parsley.  OH!!  The Shrimp scampi.
  (NOTE:  Scampi means shrimp. . . leave it up to the foreigners to screw up YET another language) ^_^

  

  The Spanish way of Calamari. . . battered, deep-fried, a kind of tar-tar sauce, lemon wedges, and deep-fried peppers.  The significance is that they use every part of a squid; head, tentacles, etc.  Muy Delicious!!

  

  Another version of their signature steamed mussel dish.  Its so fresh you can still taste some of the sea. . . then again, they said that they steam it with salt water to make you think of the sea.

  

  Ok, gonna go load up the remaining photos. 

  Barcelona kicks ass!!!!!

  I HEART SPAIN!

   

  • 11:43 am
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