Monday 15 April 2013

First trip out of Italy! – Barcelona :D (Part III)


hehe okay, as sam always says, food is the most memorable part of any trip ^^ haha. i think there is much more to a trip actually, but of course, being a foodie, FOOD is always important! and especially in europe where the cuisines differ from one country, or even one area of a country to another, it's so fun to try the local regional cuisines and write about it (:

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our first stop for food was this "fast-food" kind of place! we had asked our hostel reception to recommend us somewhere with tapas for dinner and they pointed us to this place. initially i was kinda disappointed, cos i was thinking this didn't look like any tapas place i'd imagined! :( but i realised it's actually a really popular fast food joint in spain, and the food they serve are actually quite spanish to some extent! montaditos are actually a kind of tapas, where there is a flavourful topping atop a baguette. 100 Montaditos, true to its name (i think) has 100 different kinds of montaditos for you to choose from! gosh we had such a whale of a time deciding what to eat :D we had no idea what was on the menu at all, but we just ordered. and they're really quite affordable! each piece of montadito ranges from 1€ to 1.70€ depending on the kind of bread. we also ordered a plate of nachos and fries (2.50€ each) which were awesomeeee. haha oh yeah, spain has the best coke btw! no idea why, could even be our state of mind haha but it just tastes better than anywhere else! i just totally indulged on junk food the entire trip zomg. we also had their caesar and de salmon salad (3.90€ each), and i highly recommend the salmon salad!!!!! it was sooooo good :))

100 Montaditos 
there are many locations for this place, you can check it out here: http://www.100montaditos.com/ (:

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oh dear i can't remember the name of this place!!!! >.< it's in the La Boqueria market which i mentioned in my other post about the attractions in Barcelona! it's quite near Pinotxo Bar (which i heard is good but i didn't get to try!) so you can just try either one. i'm so amazed at how they serve up such fresh seafood here! it was soooo good. sam was totally in heaven i think. hahaha.

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we were in need of some vegetables so we ordered the mix mushrooms (10€). oh yeah, the thing about this place is that every dish is a surprise :p because you have no idea how it is going to be cooked!! well, at least because we couldn't communicate with the chef due to the language barrier, so we just totally left it up to them to dish up something delish for us ^^ and boy it was goooood! there were all kinds of mushrooms, grilled with salt - simple and yummy!

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we ordered a salmon (12€) which was grilled to perfection and served to us with fries. so delicious! it was really fresh!

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sam finally got his seafood fix with this plate of prawns! very fresh as well ^^

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i wouldn't say that i managed to find the BEST place for tapas, because i didn't get to visit most (in fact all -.-) of the places recommended to me! :( but we found Restaurant Egipte randomly along the la ramblas stretch of road, and it was quite nice! (: not sure where i read online that tapas usually costs below 3€ for each dish (because they are so small!) so we kinda refused anything above that price. and we finally found this place where all tapas go for 3€! (: their selection of tapas wasnt extensive, but that meant that we could try almost everything on the menu which was nice. and their sangria was really good!!!

Restaurant Egipte
Calle La Rambla, 79, 08002 Barcelona, Spain
Tel.: +34 933179545

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our first experience with paella in barcelona was surprisingly disappointing! :( i can't believe i had my first BAD paella while i was in spain -.- the irony. seriouslyyy. it was so bland that i couldn't believe what i was eating. but i found another place that was pretty good for paella the next day though! (: Restaurant Cafe Catalunya had this combo catalunya set for 10.95€ that includes a mixed seafood paella and a soup. the mixed seafood paella was pretty tasty! (: and i liked the soup too! i think it's a soup of the day, and we had a green pea soup (i don't usually like green peas) which was surprisingly good, even with all the cheese in it, which made it quite heavy but still yummy. i dont recommend that you try to finish a whole paella yourself though. it's almost impossible!!! even sam couldn't finish it himself! 2 paellas can easily feed 3 people, or even have 2/3 people to one plate of paella if you have smaller appetites. since this restaurant doesnt allow sharing for its combo set, i suggest that you order the ala carte paella instead! (:

Restaurant Cafe Catalunya
Plaza Catalunya 7, 08007 Barcelona, Spain
Tel.: +34 933010037

*disclaimer: i have to say that the places i recommend in this post aren't really the places to get the best paella/tapas :/ unfortunately i didn't have time to try the really good ones :( but these places are pretty decent! so you can try them out if you happen to come across them

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