Spain Day 3 Lunch on the Ramblas

Yesterday we took the twenty minute bus ride into the center of Barcelona. It dropped us a half block from Plaza de Catalunya’s famous fountains and the top of the Ramblas, Barcelona’s famous walking street. We lasted twenty minutes before we succumbed to the heat and our empty stomachs and the lure of an invitingly shaded alley where we had an exquisite lunch at Xarcuteria La Pineda. It looks like a hole in the wall and indeed has only four small tables. We hesitated but the dark interior with it’s cracked tile floors, hanging meats and stacked bottles had us at hello.

Its surprising how far a few badly pronounced words can get you when a kind person faces you across the counter…and how hard it is to stop eating when you’re enjoying some of the best charcuterie you’ve ever tasted, washing it all down with cold Sangria.

We travel to experience the new and unusual to see the historic and beautiful and to enrich our lives. Surely the best way to do this is to take some of these experiences home. This casual way of dining strikes me as the perfect summer meal. Nothing to heat, fast and delicious.

Spanish Charcuterie Lunch

for four

1/2 lb Spanish Jamon; sliced but not too thin.

1/2 lb Spanish Chorizo

1/2 lb Manchego Cheese

2 small baguettes

Olive Oil

One fresh tomato

Slice the Chorizo and place meats on separate platters; cut the cheese into unpredictably sized cubes (neatness doesn’t count) and plate. Cut one baguette down the middle. Slice the tomato and plate, leaving the juice behind. Press the baguette cut sides down in the juice to moisten. Slice the other baguette and drizzle with olive oil.

Mix up a batch of Sangria and enjoy.

Sangria
(Adapted from Taberna del Alabardero and Josefina Clara Alberti)
From The Wall Street Journal, June 2, 2007, article by Eric Felten

This taste’s exactly like the Sangria we had at La Pineda

1 bottle Spanish Grenache wine
2 oz. Spanish brandy
2 oz. Cointreau
2 oz. peach liqueur
1 peach, 1 green apple, 1 orange, all peeled and diced
1 pinch ground cinnamon
6 oz. orange juice
4 oz. Sprite or 7UP
Soak the fruit in the liquors for up to a day. When ready to serve, add wine, cinnamon, orange juice and soda. Pour over ice into tumblers.