Monday March 28 was our second day in the row with good weather in Barcelona. Sunny with a high of 19C. It was great weather for our Culinary Backstreets tour of the Sants neighbourhood. We had taken a wonderful Barcelona food tour with the company in 2015, but wanted to explore a new area. The tour lasts from 9:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Four and a half hours of food and social history.
The tour was called: A Day in Sants: Feasting Off the Grid. Our guide Paula was the same experienced guide we had in 2015. She has been at Culinary Backstreets since 2010 and has led the team as a restaurant critic and walk leader. At the end of the tour, she gave us a copy of the book she had edited called: Barcelona, An Eater's Guide to the City.
We took the Metro four stops to the Plaça de Sants stop and met Paula in a square near the old railway station that has a large paved over section over old tracks and is now a great running/walking area. We could see the modern train station in the distance.
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| Photos showing old train tracks |
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| Paved area and green space |
Paula explained that Sants was one of the old working class neighbourhoods in Barcelona. It had also been a separate village as had Gràcia. Sants was the site of many textile factories, where workers lived nearby. It was where workers first organised into unions in Spain and it was also where the main train station was located.
The first building Paula pointed out was a squatters building from the 1990s. The squatters had established a community centre there and when there was a move to evict people, the community rallied behind them. The building still houses some community activities, but as there are a number of very active community centres in more modern buildings and projects in the area, it does not have the prominence it used to.
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| Can Ves- former squatters building |
Our first stop was the Mercat de Sants. As it was Monday morning, most the stalls were still not open. Paula also noted that the fish stores do not open at all on Mondays.
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| Outside of the market- |
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| The market has operated since 1913 in a grand modernist building |
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| We stopped at a legumes stall run by women who prepare traditional dishes at home |
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| Fabulous home cooking |
Paula brought us a very large plate of artichokes and a traditional spinach dish with raisins, pine nuts and bit of ham. A huge breakfast, but delicious. Paula told us a fascinating bit of food history. Apparently, after the Christians had conquered the Muslims and forced the conversion or exile of the Jewish community, they banned certain Muslim foods (pasta and rice were banned) and created many new dishes involving pork. If people didn't eat pork, they were suspected of not being Christian.
Paula told us that the enseïmada pastries we ate in Palma (spiral shaped light and airy pastry with powdered sugar) have a link to the ancient Sephardic Jewish history of Mallorca. The ensaïmadas are Christianised relatives of an ancient Jewish bread baked on the island, similar to braided challah. The Jewish Mallorcan pastry was made with olive oil, and like ensaïmadas had a light airy texture. After the Jews were forced to convert, lard was added to the pastry and the name became "ensaïmada"which means "mixed with lard."
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A plate of artichokes (the Spanish artichokes are delicious).
Paula told us that artichoke season lasts from November to April. |
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| Spinach dish |
We then stopped at a wonderful deli and had a small cheese/meat plate at tables at the back.
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| Deli counter |
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| Delicious meats with samples of goat, sheep and cow cheese |
At the front of the Deli was a vending machine where after hours, one can get packages of meats. They all looked very fresh. Only in Spain!
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| The pork vending machine |
The next stop was Pernileria, a butcher shop known for its ham. We were shown the hams tagged with green, red and black tags. The black tagged hams are the highest quality. The meat comes from Black Iberian breed pigs and receive the ibérico denomination.
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| "Artesanos del Ibérico" |
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| Amazing selection and beautiful store |
Paula picked up some samples and took them with us for tasting at a place we could sit down.
It was now vermouth (vermut in Spanish) time. We went to this wonderful bodega called Bar Bodega Salvat. It has been a vermut bar since 1880! Recently, the bar was acquired by the family who had owned the bar in earlier times. Apparently, vermut is the perfect mid-morning drink (who knew?). The bar also specialises in anchovies which are the perfect accompaniment. We had a small plate of the anchovies (delicious), boquerones (the less expensive ones cured in vinegar anchovies), and olives. I forgot to take a picture, as we inhaled them quickly with our vermut.
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| Outside of the bodega |
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| Abandoned textile mills |
There was an area that was under excavation. The graffiti poster (behind the tags) is done by a local artist commemorating the workers from the area. Some of the area now has high rises, but other sites that had former factories on them, are being developed by the community.
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| Graffiti in the background and excavation |
Our next stop was another community centre where one is expected to clear your table after use. It houses a micro brewery, so of course it was time for beer.
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| Inside of community centre |
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| Paula and me with our beer |
Then it was time for chocolate at Bombonería Pons, a chocolate shop in operation since 1960. The whole shop and the railing about the shop were full of Easter decorations and Easter chocolate treats. Paula told us that "chocolate buildings, and theme chocolate pieces" were part of Easter celebration. We ran into the owner of the Bodega we had been at earlier who was picking up a customised chocolate scene.
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| Outside the bakery |
Next we stopped at another cooperative with a number of feminist posters outside.
We passed some art done by a local homeless man. The project is called "Visibles" by Miquel Fuster.
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| #Visibles |
We then walked through a municipal building with a number of giant figures representing workers from the Sants neighbourhood.
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| Paula outside the municipal building |
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| Xinxa |
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| Xava |
We walked up a street where one could see a chimney from one of the old textile mills. It is a piece of history that is being preserved.
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Chimney in the distance
It was then time for "lunch" at Bar-Bodega Bartolí, which has operated since 1939. Another wonderful local spot with excellent food. Paula explained that some of the old Bodegas where only wine was served had to pivot after supermarkets and wine shops emerged. Some became bars and others restaurants. Because of the good cooks in this family, the Bodega became a restaurant and converted a small patio at the back into a restaurant addition and an expanded kitchen.
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Entering Bartolí
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| First course-- scrambled eggs with calçots, a type of green onion and Catalan specialty |
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| We then had some delicious pork cheeks and wine |
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| Paula cutting and giving us the pork cheeks |
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| Neighbourhood spot, filling up for lunch |
Our last stop was dessert at Vives, a local bakery.
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| Entering the bakery |
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| Lots of treats |
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We had a glass of Cava and some bunyols (an airy donut like pastry)
and some Coca with almonds (another Catalan sweet) |
A great ending to a fabulous food and social history tour. We highly recommend the Culinary Backstreets tours. They do an incredible amount of research in preparing their tours and are always publishing restaurant reviews and features about the intersection of food and culture on their website and in other publications. We have done their tours in Athens, Naples and Lisbon as well as Barcelona. Paula is our favourite guide to date.
We took the Metro back to the Diagonal stop near our apartment, but decided to make our way down La Ramblas to the Boqueria, the largest Barcelona food market.
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| Lovely walk on a sunny, warm day |
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Barça football club shop
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| Busy Boqueria market still at 4:00 p.m. |
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| In the market |
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| Chocolates and pastries |
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| More architecture |
We stopped for a coffee at Satan's Coffee Corner not too far from the market, in the Gothic Quarter.
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| Satan's coffee- just as it was closing at 5:00 p.m. |
We went into a large square that housed both a Catalunya regional building and a Barcelona city building. Both had large banners supporting Ukraine.
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| Catalunya building |
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| Barcelona building |
We wandered down a few streets in the Gothic section.
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| Roman ruins |
Then we walked back to the El Born area, passing a memorial to those who defended Catalunya during the siege of Barcelona from 1713-1714.
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| Memorial |
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| Picture in the square |
We wandered a bit more and ended up at Sagardi's for some pintxos (the small Basque snacks).
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| We shared five--- some hot and some cold-- one chooses from the counter |
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| Pintxos anyone |
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| The choices--- all of them are priced at 2.10 euros. The server counts the toothpicks for the total. |
Our last stop was at El Magnifico, which has been a coffee shop since 1919 and which was very close to the Airbnb we stayed at in 2015. We had some coffee beans ground for our espresso machine. Luckily we got there just as it was closing at 8:00 p.m.
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| El Magnifico |
We headed back to the apartment for tea and dessert. It was lovely walking up the brightly lit Passeig de Gràcia. It also helped that sunset is now 8:30 p.m. What an amazing food and history day.
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