Every Christmas I say to myself:  I must write a post about the caganers. And every Christmas, by the time I get my act together, every other Catalunya-related blogger and feature writer has already done it. Anyway, this time, here we go. The caganer is a small figure, traditionally depicted as a Catalan peasant, in, [...]

Summer in the city. You lie around in your underwear, eyes glazed, watching TV adverts for canned iced tea, air conditioners, mosquito machines and indefinably pornographic ice creams.  It’s time to head for the hills for the Catalan Picnic Experience, an elaborate ritual that bears no resemblance to the consumption, in the car in a [...]

Have you noticed how popular cats are in Catalan? ‘Quatre gats’ is the expression of choice to mean ‘only a few people’. It should be uttered with a dismissive gesture: ‘Bah! Només són quatre gats.’ Of course, Els Quatre Gats is a really famous Modernista coffee house and restaurant in Barcelona where Picasso and other [...]

Now that the weather is heating up, it’s time to make escalivada. Mmmm. You absolutely can’t beat it – Mediterranean, healthy, fat-free, delicious, and perfect for preparing in advance. You can serve it as a salad or sidedish, warm or cold.  A lot of recipes mention onions and tomatoes, but I just do it with [...]

Whenever I’m asked what I most love about living here, the first answer that comes unbidden is usually: the food. It’s not just about the thousands of bars and cafes and restaurants, nor about eating out at all the ‘happening’ joints or fusion or Ferran Adrià. It’s the colourful cornucopia of the markets; the elaborate [...]