Barcelona Part 2 - How to cook (and eat) Paella

Mercat de Sant Josep, just off of La Rambla

On this day, me and Kelven split up and each went our separate ways.  It was a crummy rainy day, which was surprising because I've never heard anybody talk about relentless rain like this in Barcelona before!  But in any case, it's all good.  I went to the market which was...  colourful...  and much different from what I expected a European market to be (see pictures below).  The paella cooking class was fairly disappointing in terms of the "cooking class" part because it was more of a cooking demonstration (ie, the guy does the cooking up front and you don't actually get your hands dirty).  However, they provided us with all the sangria that we wanted which was probably foolish on their part and made the night a lot more enjoyable for us!  :D

Lots of 1 Euro juice stands

At least they warn you it "sucs" lol (actually, I do know that sucs means that the juice is "sweet" in Spanish hahaha)

That's a lot of mutherf***ing eggs!  Also, a little creepy with the chicken dolls around...  Like they're happy that you're eating their offspring...

What I did:

• September 29, 2012 - Wandered around Barcelona (it was kind of a miserable rainy day), went around the Mercat de Sant Josep / La Boqueria, joined a Paella cooking class

Holy crap, by the size of that salmon head that fish is big enough to eat her!  That is, if she hadn't already cut it up lol

I tried some of the jamon iberico (basically the highest grade "ham" that you can find in Spain).  So fatty and rich...  oh yeah...  :D

Soo good :D

Yup, those are skinned rabbits.  Graphic eh?  Oops, I guess I should have warned you.  Sorry!  Was crazy to see this though, I felt like I was in Asia!  In hindsight, maybe I should have tried some rabbit while I was in Barcelona!

Highlights:

• The food markets - I visited a few other ones while I was in Barcelona, but Mercat de Sant Josep was the best (in my opinion) and definitely the largest.  It's so interesting to wander around there because I feel like you learn a lot about a culture from seeing where they get their food!  Also, I really like food...  hahaha
• The sangria drinking class - Oops, I mean the paella cooking class.  Met a bunch of cool American girls (umm...  from Chicago, going to school in St. Louis, doing exchange programs in Spain and France...  if I recall correctly), some Aussies & Kiwis, and an Austrian who will appear (hilariously) in a few of my photos below.

In his defence, he really put in a lot of effort explaining what he was doing and even providing back stories on paella!

Lowlights:

• The "cooking" portion of the cooking class!  But they made up for it with the "drinking" part so I forgive them hahaha.

Representing my Canucks!

Making new friends!  That's Babsi (Austrian) in the middle and Camilla (Australian) on the right

Can't Miss:  Chilling with new friends over a few pitchers of sangria!  :P

 

Long story short, Babsi had a few too many and ended up behind the bar.  Thought the Austrians could handle their booze???

Well, the bartender wasn't impressed but at least he was amused!