I've only been here a week, but I think I can make some basic generalizations about food here, or at least food in the Gothic Quarter.
There are not different kinds of meat, just different kinds of pork. Thankfully I was not raised orthodox. There's tons of seafood all around, but most of the chicken or beef I've seen around either looks gross or is. The thing to eat here is "tapas", which are basically just small appetizer-portions of things, some of which you see everywhere.
*Patatas Bravas-these are everywhere. "Brave Potatoes" are just wedges with some kind of pink sauce which varies in quality, from a gross cheese-whiz type consistency to actual tomato-based sauce. In theory they're supposed to be spicy?
*Pinchos Murados-I had Moorish-style kabobs the other day and it was the most disgusting thing I'd eaten all year. I think that these are good in some places, but the cafe I was ate served me these cubes of seasoned pork fat and it was just chewy and weird and 2.50 euro I could never take back.
*Xorico-the best kind of pork sausage they have here. It's just the catalan word for chorizo and I haven't really had a bad experience with it yet. The best was a full xorico sausage link which was in some kind of red wine reduction. It was delicious.
*(Green Peppers with Salt)-I've taken to ordering this at a few places, I think they're pimientos but I can't really remember, but either way, they sort of serve them like you would pickles at a deli. They're salted, and I like putting them either on chorizo or bread. These are also supposedly "spicy."
In other news, I ordered take-out from a mediocre japanese noodle house down the street. The real problem with this place is you can't call in, you have to actually show up there, which to me defeats the purpose of take-away. I had to stand alone like an idiot for ten minutes at the doorway; the whole idea was so that I didn't eat in a restaurant alone, but just standing in a restaurant alone isn't much better.
In other news, I walked from Parc Guell down back to the Sagrada Familia and then back to my flat in about an hour.
Ok, 2.5 euro is what, about $3.50, which in the US gets you what, a McBurger? Which you would never eat. Perhaps you need to raise your standards a tad, as far as the establishments you frequent? No that I want you blowing alot of money you dont have on food, but really... And eating alone in a restaurant is fine, and can become even enjoyable. Have a magazine to pretend to read, and watch people.
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