San Esteban/Sant Esteve My Catalan mother-in-law could never relax on Christmas Day.  Plates with remains of chicken or turkey were whipped from under our noses, earthenware dishes hauled away for scrubbing. While we were still gut-busting our way through turrón, cava, coffee and brandy, or already flaked out, bloated and snoring, in armchairs, terrifying crashes, [...]

So here we go again, rolling out the Christmas stuff. Last year, you may recall, I got my act together enough to write a post about the caganer, and very popular and well-received it was. For newbies, or those too lazy to click on the old post to refresh their memories, the caganer is one [...]

OMG as they say. Have just seen a post for an expat calçotada outing. Almost missed it again this season. So what’s the Garlic take (no pun intended) on the Catalans’ favourite gastronomic bash traditional to the town of Valls? The calçot looks like a cross between a leek and a spring onion, and is [...]

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. [...]

And for those of you who have requested a post about that other Catalan Christmas tradition, the Tió: go here – you get all the other Spanish Christmas stuff too. Go here for Part 2 and here for Part 3. By the way: it’s tió (teeOH) meaning log,  not tío (as in uncle /guy’ – [...]