Eat to Ride and Ride to Eat

May 31, 2022

Today was all about eating, our second most favourite pastime. And, I dare say that most who are reading this will agree that it's one of life's pleasures.

I like to book a cooking class when on vacation but these are all cancelled due to covid so a food tour seemed to be a great choice. It so happens that there's a company offering such tours just three doors down the street from us. As mentioned in an earlier journal entry, I had booked us in for the 10am tour today. I was to last for four hours. So, soon after finishing breakfast, we joined the group of 11 that had gathered (8 adults and 3 children... lucky little devils!) and met our tour guide Alexia.

We set off for breakfast as the first stop. Let's just say, nobody complained about having a second breakfast! We both had café cotaldo's to go with the chou-chou pastry, a small deep fried pastry with a catalan cream filling. A cotaldo is an espresso with a little mik and foam. Delicious.

Next, we strolled a few blocks to the Girona Mercado, the indoor market. This is like a visit to a candy store for foodies. The visual and aromatic sensations are a feast in themselves. To have access to all this fresh food, especially the fish, in one central market is a pipe dream for Victoria. It's not that we don't have access to fresh produce, dairy, seafood and meat, rather it is not in a central daily marketplace. And there is nowhere near the selection that you find in a market like this.

But we were here to eat, so our first stop was the award winning sausage maker. We sampled two of his pork sausages, one a dry thin cut sausage and the other was a 'sweet' sausage for which he won the prestigious award. It warmed up our tastebuds.

After that we moved on to a fish stall where they sold salt cod and anchovies, plus a variey of salads. We each had a sampling of local olives and two salads, one with anchovies and roasted vegetables and the other with salt cod and fresh peppers. It's the first time either of has eaten salt cod and I must say it was delicious and it was not the least bit salty. It is soaked in water for 24+ hrs to remove the salt and what remains is just delicious fresh tasting cod. We also had pickled anchovy on bread.

We strolled around the market to take it in. No doubt, we will return to perouse it on our own time.

These are the tomatoes that they crush fresh and spread on bread along with some olive oil. That's the basic pa ambol and from there you can have cheese, ham, peppers, avocado etc.

We have been eating the dark green melons seen in this photo, every day since we arrived. It's a little sweet and very juicy.

The variety of seafood is amazing. It is fresher than fresh. Check out the size of that Atlantic salmon!

Check out the price of this organic dressed chicken. For comparison, the euro is worth about $1.35 Canadian.

After tasting salty foods, we left the market and headed for a chocolate shop where two large plates of chocolate samples were assembled for us. There were at least 15 different types of chocolate on offer and the shop keeper broke off samples of every kind for us to taste. The peppercorn and dark chocolate combo was my favourite, although the candied ginger/dark chocolate was a close second.

The vendors to this point were all located within three or four blocks of our hotel. Each visit was nicely spaced so we could savour what we had just tasted and then have a gentle stroll while chatting with the others in the tour group.

Next stop was the Iberico ham vendor. Tables and chairs had been set up for us on the outside patio. We were served glass of cava (Spanish name for champagne or prosecco) and then a platter with two olive oils and fresh bread cubes was served. One olive oil was an everyday oil and the other was a stronger tasting oil. My tastebuds will never look back after tasting olive oil here in Spain. It is soooooo tasty!

Next they brought out platters of crostinis with crushed fresh tomato, olive oil and Iberico ham. Again, they served us two grades of ham, everyday and the most expensive acorn fed and well aged type. Both were very thinly hand sliced (which is a special art of its own). Exquisite.

By now we were feeling very spoiled. The ratings for this tour were jumping higher and higher with each stop. We migrated to the old city via the metal pedestrian bridge that was designed and built by Gustav Eiffel prior to the construction of his Eiffel tower in Paris.

By now it was 1pm and time for lunch, although the Spanish prefer to have lunch around 3pm or maybe 2pm at the earliest. We went to a restaurant, where they served us wine or drinks of our choice and then they brought on the paella, one dish after the other. We had vegetarian paella, then chicken and mussel paella, then prawn and mussel paella and finally a crispy mini pasta noodle dish. Another amazing experience.

For the finale, dessert, we headed back to the other side of the river to a gelateria that apparently has the world's best gelato. They also make some beautiful gelato concoctions. It was tough, but we had to select one or two gelato flavours plus up to three toppings (fresh fruit, cake chunks, melted chocolate, sprinkles, nuts, hand made marshmallows, spun sugar).

The world's creamiest gelato, baked apple, with raspberry marshmallows and blueberries.

Then... if we wanted we could have it in a brioche bun. We first saw this in Sicily, where it's served with a granita (like a slushie). At this gelateria, they have taken it to another level. After putting your gelato and toppings in the bun, they slip it into a rounded panini press and it seals the cold treat inside.

We were all ready for a siesta at this point. Alexia had done an excellent tour and bid us adios but not before telling us we were welcome to join her on the evening tapas tour that started at 6:30pm. LOL, I don't think any of us besides the children were planning to have dinner tonight! Ok, maybe a liquid dinner.

In lieu of dinner, we decided to head to the cathedral for a tour. Since this journal is already long in the tooth, I'll just post a couple of photos and call this done. Tomorrow, we are back on the bikes.

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Anne AnastasiouFantastic pics again! And the sky is still looking very blue. Looks like you choose the perfect time of year to visit.
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1 year ago

Anne MathersTo Anne AnastasiouYes, this period consistently works out for us. It's also a break from the chill and the winds of the prolonged spring in Victoria.
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1 year ago