Panellets

I have mentioned a couple of times on this blog the fact that the pastry counters in Barcelona change depending on the season of the year, and there are some sweets that have "starring" appearances during only a few days, as the "coca de Sant Joan" or the Easter Cake.


On November 1st the undisputed star is the panellet, that will be eaten together with sweet potatoes and chestnuts. This year it looks that the weather is quite appropriate and we are not celebrating the "Castanyada" in short sleeves...

In case anyone wants to try to do panellets, it is never a bad moment, and HERE you have a recipe. If you try it and make some, please let me know...I love them and I haven't had any yet!

PROVISIONAL MARKETS

One of the good things that Barcelona has done in the last years is the recovery, refurbishment and modernization of fresh produce markets in all the districts of the city. Through its history, Barcelona developped a special small-store model, which is getting now hard to maintain. Many of us like this model, compared to having huge, impersonal malls in the suburbs.
Some time ago I posted on this blog about the Born market and its eternal building works, but now I want to write about other elements that accompany us for years: those fresh produce markets that set provisional big tops while the building is refurbished
Among others, the city has refurbished in recent years the market of Barceloneta and Santa Caterina (Ciutat Vella), Clot (Sant Martí) and Llibertat (Gracia), and during the works, the big tops have been placed in nearby open spaces.
Some of these works last so long that the concept of "provisional" seem to become "definitive" but generally we know that the tops will only be there for a certain time. And then they will disappear to leave free way, again, to the original market.
Now Sant Antoni market is being refurbished, and I am looking forward to the ending of the works because a building as spectacular as this one, inaugurated in 1872, will be for sure gorgeous.

Horchata at Poble Nou

I like seasonal products because you have to wait to the right time of the year, and when they arrive, they are much more appreciated. Furthermore, we link them to certain habits and ideas, so you are transported to that time of the year just by remembering them.

That happens to me with horchata. Its season is limited to summer, and that is why it is inseparable from the heat, the sun and the muggy weather.

And in Barcelona it is clear that drinking horchata is already a tradition, especially at a terrace. There are historical horchaterías, like "Tio Che" at La Rambla del Poble Nou, which this summer celebrated its Centennial! The founders were Joan and Josefa, who, coming from a village in the province of Alicante, began serving horchatas in the Born one century ago. And their family is still cooling the hot afternoons in Barcelona with this nutritious drink. Congratulations Tío Che!

The Bikini sandwich

Calling "Bikini" the hot ham-and-cheese sandwich is not an exclusive characteristic from Barcelona but from the whole Catalonia, but the origin of the word is fully Barcelonian.

All the locals know the Bikini concert hall, in the district of Les Corts. Well, Bikini opened in 1953 as a dance hall with terrace and mini golf, and also as a meeting place for dining. Among its culinary specialities there was an adaptation of a well-known French sandwich, called croque-monsieur. This snack was becoming increasingly popular and was eventually known as "the sandwich they prepare at Bikini". From that to the current name of the sandwich there was only one step.

Well, or at least that's what I've heard and what I've been able to investigate. If anyone is aware if that is an urban legend, please tell me!

What it is for sure is that I know more than one person who has asked for a Bikini at a bar outside Catalonia and has been looked at as a freak.

Chocolate at Petritxol street

Petritxol street is special for many reasons. Some reasons why:

- Because, despite being within walking distance of the saturated Rambla, and despite linking the busy Portaferrissa and Plaça del Pi, it conveys a feeling of returning to the past.

- Because it has ceramic tiles along its 130 meters of length, which explain stories that happened in that street.

- Because it was the first entirely pedestrian street of Barcelona. Even its name is said to come from the word "Pedritxol", due to the stones placed at the entrance to the street that prevented the carriages from entering it.

- Because of its unique combination of inimitable and art galleries and what we call "granges". Among the former there is the gallery Parés. It opened in 1840, and was a meeting place for lovers of art, who after the visit used to have something to eat in the area. And among the "granges" there are still surviving the Pallaresa and Dulcinea.

- For the infinite pleasure that gives eating chocolate with sponge fingers, a Swiss chocolate with "churros" or simply a dish of cream while you enjoy all those reasons!

Chestnut stalls

Every year, a couple of weeks before the festivity of All Saints (November, 1st), stalls selling chestnuts and sweet potatoes are settled in the streets of Barcelona. They are with us until well after Christmas and Epiphany. In fact, selling chestnuts in the streets of Barcelona is an ancient tradition. There is evidence that in the late eighteenth century there were over two hundred stalls stops on the streets of Call, La Boqueria and Hospital.

Many of us imagine the figure of chestnut sellers roasting chestnuts in front of the fire, warm enough, giving us a cone made ​​of newspaper, full of steaming chestnuts. They are energetic fruits that are supposed to help us beat the cold.

But it's been more than a month since All Saints and it is still warm in Barcelona. In fact, this was the second warmest month of November of the last century. I have a theory that states that the seasons come now later than before, but that is a feeling without any scientific basis, so I'll leave it for another time...

Finally, if winter ends up showing up and you feel like eating chestnuts, there are twenty-eight stalls scattered around Barcelona. You can even see their location on the website of the City Council. After all, they are and have always been part of our landscape!