Have you seen the video of flamenco artists protesting with all their hallmark defiant passion and sensuality at the Banco de Santander? Banquero, banquero… How we loved their threatening wails. We shared it on Facebook and someone commented : we won’t see this in Catalunya. But there’s lots of flamenco in Catalunya, someone else responded. [...]
Making a truita de patates (tortilla de patatas / Spanish omelette) is dead easy. You fry the diced potatoes in olive oil till soft. You beat the eggs in a bowl, with salt. You cook the mixture in the frying pan on one side. And then you turn it – and end up with a [...]
My late father-in-law used to speak Catalan reverse slang, which he had originally devised with his best mate, as a young man, so that la grossa (la sogra, the mother-in-law) would not understand them. (This was even funnier in a politically incorrect era because gros/grossa also means large or fat.) Decades later, Avi (grandad, to [...]
Clearing through truckloads of papers the other day, I came upon a priceless handwritten note from last summer that I’d given up for lost. Vinegar bug holes Rice with stroke Tail of quick shave to the oven Codfish to the old one These gems were from the English version of the menu at a restaurant [...]
One of my least favourite summer-in-the-city rituals is the ITV – that is, the yearly Inspección Técnica de Vehículos. Mine is always due in late July, when Barcelona is at its stickiest and most irritable. Last year, despite having hora (an appointment), I sat for hours (with air-con bust) in a queue that stretched a [...]
