Down By The Boardwalk...

I think that the very first destination for misguided people headed to Santa Cruz, is the Beach Boardwalk.  

As the calendar pages are pulled back, beach goers descend upon Cowell's Beach like migratory gulls, laying out beach towels and popping up neon bright umbrellas.  In the background, rickety wooden roller coasters roar along their tracks, and riders' screams are all a part of the sunny ambiance.  

In the years that I've lived here, on and off, I had never been to the Boardwalk or to Cowell's Beach.

In fact, I tried to avoid the beach altogether, wary of the crowds and summer hooligans who came to play.  Last summer, however, Beach Street received a new tenant:  The Picnic Basket.

Now the traffic jams and parking mazes are worth braving.  (Even if the Boardwalk itself is not.)

(And yes, I'm on Instagram: chloe_kiser )

Eating Out In Barcelona...

Ryan  has  been putting me to absolute shame when it comes to eating.  After a few unlucky meals to ring in the new year, I have approached new foods a bit more gingerly as of late, a disposition that was only made worse after reading George Orwell's, Down and Out in Paris and London.  

However, as soon as we arrived in Spain, all my careful eating habits were lost.

You can't just come to Spain and not eat all black footed pig, spicy chorizo, million different kinds of mushrooms, or slimy anchoives piled in front of you.

Before leaving California, Ryan was given a list of places to eat in Barcelona by Mark, a long time California chef, who currently resides in the kitchen at The Penny Ice Creamery.  Marks been around:  he's worked for Alice Waters at Chez Panisse (where he likes to reminisce about the time Alice let him start a restaurant baseball team and embroidered their caps with a flourishing P), for Wolfgang Puck, and a number of other notable names in the industry.  So, you can trust that this guy knows what he's talking about when he gave us a restaurant guide for his favorite haunts in Barcelona.

Here are his suggestions, complete with his voice (I pipe in every one in a while in italics).

El Xampanyet ~ Cava bar right near the Picasso museo

Carrer de Montcada 22

+ 34 93 319 70 03 Metro L4 Jaume 1

Closed Sunday – Monday

One of my favorite bars, great little tapas and dirt cheap Spanish champagne - get there right at opening at noon to snag a table or you'll spent your entire meal standing! Try peppers stuffed with cheeses, salt cod with black olive or dry-aged Manchego.

TapaÇ24 ~ tapas 5 blocks south of our apartment off the Passeig de Gracia

269 Carrer de la Diputacio

+ 34 93 488 09 77

Metro L2, L3, L4 Passeig de Gracia

Open throughout the day 8-midnight, closed Sundays

Another of my favorites, service can be brusque with non Spanish speakers but the chow is awesome. The truita (Spanish tortilla), gambas, bikini (Iberico ham sandwich), patatas bravas, korean bbq wings (I shit you not), Bomba (deep-fried meatballs) and the chocolate with olive oil and sea salt. Just thinking about this place makes me want to book a plane ticket!    Oh my goodness, those bikinis aren't just ham sandwiches!  They're iberico ham with black truffle paste, pressed and grilled with manchego cheese...oh, oh, oh, oh!

 

Bar Pinotxo

91 La Rambla - right inside the entrance to the Mercat de la Boqueria

Open daily 7am-5pm

+ 34 93-317-17-31

The best for cheap rustic eats, counter seating only, order directly from the cooks or Joan, no printed menu. Items not to miss: chiperones (baby squid), butifarra ( grilled suasage), lobster, cigrons (chickpeas with blood sausage), navajes (razor clams), exquixada (salt cod salad) to name a few... Great place for breakfast, Spanish style: pan tomaquet, chuchos  y cortados!  I came here in November too, on the recommendation of Chef Jami Cakes, and was only too happy to go back. Elbow your way up to the counter for very limited seating between tourists and locals alike.  Breakfast here is fantasic (we went three times this week), and the staff is great- they even drew me a map to the place they get their haircut so I could get a trim too!

Cal Pep

Placa de las Ollas, 8 - just a few streets south of the Picaso Museo in the very cute la Ribera hood

+ 34 93-310-76-61

closed Sundays dinner from 7:30-11:30

Long lines, counter seating only and brusque service, but... Incredible seafood: roast monkfish, fried calamari, tiny squid, sepia (cuttlefish) a la plancha, tiny fried fish - eat heads and all, gambas (super sweet prawns), cigales (even sweeter langoustines), and this dish I can't remember the name of but it's super tiny fried fish served with a deep-fried egg - crazy good.  Arguably the best seafood restaurant in the entire world (and another Chef Jami recommendation).  There is no menu but if you give your server your budget, they'll start bringing you plates and plates of seafood.  My favorite are the langoustines Mark recommends, served with an onion sauce, and the roasted monk fish, my new favorite fish.

Not a Mark-recommended place, but an essential Barcelona spot none the less,
El Champagneria
Carrer de la Reina Christina, 7  
Monday through Saturday 9:30-10:30
No seating room here, only hoards of people squished together delicately handling glasses of pink cava and eating greasy hamburgesas and chorizo bocadillas.  It's an odd sounding combo at first, but with champagne served for less than a Euro a glass, it's brilliant, and I'll have eleven thanks.
We did have a funny experience here once, when, during a tasting frenzy, we asked our server what his favorite dish was.  His response:  not anything from here.
So, though it may not be the most gourmet of places, the ambiance and experience is unbeatable.

There you have it, the best of the best in Barcelona, with recommendations from people who really know their stuff.  

¡Buen provecho!

Le Chateaubriand...

If these previous weeks have been somewhat unlucky food-wise, they have made up for it in celebrity chef sitings.

 

After coming back from La Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature, Ryan swears he saw Yves Camdeborde, chef of Le Comptoir.  (I have to admit, I didn't really know who he was, but it was exciting none-the-less.) 

"Okay, cool, next we have to see David Lebowitz."

If you've never heard me wax on about David Lebowitz before, I'd be very surprised.  

Who is David Lebowitz?

Author of The Perfect Scoop.

Former Chez Panisse pastry chef, resource for all things Parisian, and my culinary idol.

(Also, mainly responsible for my ice cream obsession.)

"Would you even know him if you saw him on the street?"

"Um, no."

So, that evening, before going for a drink at Le Perle, I googled him.

And two hours later, on Rue Vielle du Temple, he walked past me.

I saw David Lebowitz.

I nearly died.

Actually, I nearly chased him down the street in what only would have ended with me a tongue-tied mess, blubbering incoherently about ice cream flavors, the bay area ice cream scene, and whether or not he knew so-and-so.  Thankfully, I managed to stay in my chair, and contained my enthusiasm to a wave.  And guess what!?!  He waved back!!

My life is complete.*

Ryan took great pleasure in teasing me about the whole affair, but honestly, the next week when we saw Inaki Aizpitarte, chef of Le Chateaubriand, he was even more star struck than I had been.

Seated with a good view of the kitchen, he could not help craning his neck to see the chef at work.  And with good reason, the plates coming out of his kitchen were some of the most curious dishes I have ever eaten.  Not to mention delicious.  

If I hadn't had my camera on hand to sneakily snap dimly-lit photos of each dish, I would definitely have forgotten elements of our twelve course meal.  The fixed menu meal was conducted as follows:

Entrées

Poppy Seed Crusted Cheese Biscuits

Grapefruit and Mackerel Ceviche

Tamarind Powder Dusted Crispy Shimp

Avocado Mousse with Radish and Sea Snail

Ginger Miso Soup

Plats

Black Seaweed Purée topped with Lychee, Shashimi, Grapefruit, Black Spinach, Iberico Ham, and a Celery Seaweed Remoulade

White Fish with Seared Skin, Scallion Sauce, Green Onions, Leeks and Shaved Black Truffle

Smoked Mozzarella Foam, Mixed Mushrooms, White and Dark Duck Breast

Dessert

Cheese Platter

Rum Soaked White Mushrooms with Vanilla Bean Cream and Candied Clementine

Creme Caramel "chef style" (topped with a soft boiled egg yolk)

Sugar Poached Mango Sprinkled with Indian Digestive Spices

Wow.

Sometimes, I think, people deserve a bit of idolizing.

*I'm totally joking, of course.