What to Eat in Barcelona
Barcelona has restaurants to suit every taste and pocket. Most are located in Old Barcelona and El Ensanche.
The most expensive can be found in El Ensanche and the residential area, whilst those frequented by young people are located in Gracia and La Ribera. Restaurants specialising in fish are found in La Barceloneta. The most typical are the "tabernas Catalanas" (Catalan inns) which offer traditional home cooking. Modern restaurants have been set up by young university students specialising in the "nouvelle cuisine". The inns offer quantity and home cooking whereas the modern restaurants offer selection, imagination and extravagance. Between these two extremes there is also a very wide selection. There are two important and long established restaurants. One is "Can cullaretes" in Quintana street and the other is "Les Set Portes" in the Placa del Palau. Foreign restaurants include Arab, Argentinian, Korean, Japanese, German, French, Chinese, etc.
Catalan dishes
The main Catalan dishes include "escudella i carn d´olla"· (vegetable, stew, rice, noodles and potatoes served as a soup), followed by "el cocido" (stew) with haricot beans, "botifarra" (Catalan sausage), "pilota" (minced beef), bread, eggs and selected spices. Valencian "paella" comes under the name of "arros a la cassola". "La Zarzuela" is a dish consisting of monk fish, grouper, prawns or king prawns, squid and mussels. If lobsters used instead of king prawns it is known as "opera", "Suqet de peix" is another dish containing a variety of fish. Other typical dishes include "bacalla a la Llauna" (cod cooked and seasoned in a metal boiling-pan), "faves a la catalana" (large haricot beans), and "botifarra amb mongetes" (Catalan sausage with beans). There is also a wide variety of confectionery. For example "crema catalan", "mel i mato" (cottage cheese with honey, "torrons" (a kind of nougat), "postre de music" (pine kernels and raisins), etc. Important wines include those from Peralada, Alella, Taragona, Priorat (red wine), El Penedes (red and white) and the sparkling wines from El Penedes and Peralada.
As far as accommodation is concerned, there are hotels, hostels, and boarding houses. The former are naturally more expensive than the latter. Boarding houses abound in Old Barcelona whereas in La Rambla, near to the Cathedral and El Ensanche, there are fine hotels. This is also the case of the upper and residential areas of the city. Barcelona is more than prepared to cater for the millions of visitors it welcomes each year.
There are bars to be found in every district of the city, but some areas specialise in them more than other. For example: the district of La Ribera, the area around Santa Maria del mar, La Rambla, the districts of Raval, Gracia and Sarria. The more refined bars are found in the Rambla de Catalunya, the Passeig de Gracia, the Diagonal, the Placa de Francesc Macia and the residential area in general.
Variety theatres enjoy a great tradition in the city and are located in El Parallel, where there are many revues and night clubs. There are other in Tapies street such as "Barcelona de Noche" (Barcelona at Night), the streets of Arc del Teatro, Escudeller, Aribau, Muntaner, Sant Gervasi and in the Diagonal. Those interested in dancing and discotheques will find dozens all over the city.
Source: In-Spain.info
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