Eating in Barcelona

Specialties - food to look out for in Barcelona

At breakfast: canya (cream filled pastry), bikini (toasted ham and cheese sandwich), torrada (open toasted sandwich with your choice of filling) and xurros amb xocolata/churros con chocolate (a lightly deep-fried stick of plain pastry dipped in thick, hot chocolate).

Lunch & Dinner:
The all-important sauces: sofregit (fried onion, tomato and garlic); samfaina or chanfaina (sofregit plus red pepper and aubergine or courgette); picada (made with ground almonds, garlic, parsley, pine or hazel nuts, and breadcrumbs);allioli (pounded garlic with olive oil, and egg yolk to make a mayonnaise-type sauce); and romesco (an almond, tomato, olive oil, garlic and vinegar sauce, also used to dress salads).
Also: tortilla, canalons (Catalan cannelloni), mariscada (seafood dish with crawfish and shrimps fried with garlic and olive oil), arros negre (rice with squid ink which makes it black), escudella I carn d’olla (local beef stew).

Deserts: crema Catalana (a rich, creamy custard sprinkled with cinnamon).

Beverages:
Orxata – (a refreshing drink made with the juice of the chufa, a fruit similar to the papyrus)
Granizado: (orange or lemon juice with crushed ice served from centrifugal machines. Coffee can also be prepared this way).
Beguda de pobre (literally 'drink of the poor' – typical of the Lleida region this drink is made with oranges, anise and sugar).
Vermuth al grifo (wine macerated with herbs)
Moscatel (sweet dessert wine)

Taking a Spanish Language Course in Barcelona is a great opportunity to try out the delicious local cuisine.