Will Travel for Food: Barcelona

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At work and in my own kitchen,

my cooking is always evolving.

Travel is key to that mission.

To try new things, you've gotta go new places.

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Barcelona is such a global city.

Coming here, you're destined to experience

shifting culinary trends and eat food

inspired by the cuisines of the world.

As a Bon Appétit editor,

I'm constantly seeking out inspiration

in the form of new-to-me food experiences,

flavor combinations, and culinary traditions...

I'm really happy we ordered this one.

Which is why I love having the Chase Aeroplan card.

Whether I'm eating at my favorite spots in Brooklyn,

dining out at new restaurants,

or eating in a city I've never been to before.

I'm earning points that are easy to redeem

and get me closer to more culinary experiences.

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In Catalonia, it felt right to start my eating tour

in a classic Catalonian fashion.

Pinotxo Bar has been serving

traditional breakfast and tapas since 1940,

and recently moved to its location in the San Antonio market

after its legendary owner Juanito passed away in 2023.

Now run by Juanito's nephew Jordi, it's as beloved as ever.

[people speaking in foreign language]

[Jordi speaking in foreign language]

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[people speaking in foreign language]

Delicious.

[Jordi speaking in foreign language]

[Kendra grunting in satisfaction]

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[Jordi speaking in foreign language]

It feels like a really communal thing,

it's like nature's bloom and onion,

you, like, throw it on the table

and everybody's going in and picking at it.

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It's a mix of what, in my job,

I would call, like, fancy mushrooms,

not your typical creminis or buttons like these are,

they're really luxurious-type.

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Also in the San Antonio neighborhood,

Bar Alegria looks like a movie,

with a chalkboard list of classic tapas.

I've been told not to miss

the tortilla Española with truffles.

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Ah, hola!

Hello, how are you?

Good, thank you, how are you? [indistinct]

Thank you so much.

So these are gildas, traditional...

[indistinct]

Tapa.

I don't know if it's traditional

to put the whole thing in your mouth at once,

but it does feel like that's where I'm going,

so that's what we're gonna do.

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[Kendra grunting in satisfaction]

It's really, like, a perfect little first bite,

wets your palate, makes you ready to eat tons more.

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So this is, like, a classic Russian salad,

mayo, and egg, and tuna fish,

and it has more pickle peppers on top,

which eating it periodically

breaks through all of that creamy rich fatness.

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What I originally thought was maybe grated cheese

is actually the whites of the hard-boiled eggs,

like, shredded really fine into these strings.

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This is the bikini, so a pressed sandwich.

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That's so fun. Like, what is there to be mad about?

Ham, cheese, truffles. Toasty little triangle.

When I lived in Madrid,

I ate a metric ton of tortilla Española.

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It has these beautiful layers of tender potato and egg

that is, like, the glue that holds it all together.

I love the size.

It feels like I could put it in my pocket and take it home.

I very well might.

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Because Barcelona is the capital of the Catalonia region,

you'd be remiss not to experience

home-style Catalan cuisine, like they serve at Ca L'Estevet.

It's been around since the late 19th century,

and run by the same family for five generations.

I'm looking forward to indulging in long-cooked sauces,

braised meat, and a bit of...

[indistinct]

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Ah, gracias.

This is meatballs with curly fish and prawns.

It's really typical Catalan dish

because we use what we call mar i muntanya,

which is sea and mountain.

Because of Catlan geography, because we have...

It's called like this because of the Mediterranean

and the Pyrenees.

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This is so delightful that...

To learn that Catalonian cuisine is, like, OG surf-and-turf

because of the location of this city

between the Pyrenees and the ocean,

it's sort of emblematic on this plate.

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The sauce tastes like a labor of love,

tastes like it took a long time.

[Kendra gasping in excitement]

Oh, wow.

So these the oxtails too, and it's a really typical dish

because now, it's done with the tail of an ox,

but before, it used to be done with a tail of a bull.

After bull-fighting, they would use the bulls

that were dead in order to make this dish.

Wow.

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You're here for the oxtails too,

we'll give you a leaf of parsley

and we'll give you one potato,

but you're here for the good stuff.

I know that there's one more dish to come.

What's coming?

So this actually...

This is a recipe from my great-great grandma,

and these are cannelloni,

which is one of the most traditional dishes in Catalonia.

This is my family dish.

[people laughing]

Perfect.

He brings it out, it's on a sizzle tray.

He wants to make sure

it's getting maximum little blister-y char,

then comes over, moves it all onto my plate,

and is sure to get every last bit

of that béchamel on the plate too,

like, that's service, right?

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Here, you can feel the flavor of long cooking,

and it's really nice to have that as a dish

at the end of a day like today.

Thank you so much. Thank you.

Thank you.

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For lunch, I'm going to eat like the locals do,

just maybe not in the way you would think.

Parking Pizza is, yes, located

in a converted parking garage,

but it also serves the best pizza in Barcelona,

in an industrial space ingeniously hidden from the street.

It's a place for everyone.

Oh, beautiful.

Thank you so much, these are stunning.

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Have you found a welcome audience of people in Barcelona

wanting to have this style of pizza?

Well, I think it's...

Like, it's our...

[Berta speaking in foreign language]

I mean, it's like we live in the Mediterranean Sea

and everything, it's, like, what we need.

This is their three-cheese, four-cheese,

can't remember how many cheeses, lots of cheeses.

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Somebody in the corner saying, Gorgonzola!

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It's not, like, the central cheesy flavor of this pizza.

We've got asparagus on here, we've got tarragon.

It's really a millage of a lot of things.

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[Kendra grunting in satisfaction]

This is also the one with cheddar.

It can stand up against, like, tarragon,

which is quite powerful in its flavor,

if you've ever had a green goddess dressing,

you know what I'm talking about. [relaxed hip-hop music]

It feels like Easter flavors, asparagus, the tarragon.

So this is the Mallorca sobrasada,

so it's kind of like an 'nduja,

which is an Italian spreadable sausage.

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A lot of the Italian Mediterranean flavors

are what make up Spanish cuisine in many ways,

especially in Barcelona, so it's in...

Like, and last night, we had canelloni,

which feels very Italian,

but is a traditional Catalan dish as well,

so you really see a lot of through-lines

between Italian cooking and Catalonian cooking

in a way that I did not expect,

it's not something I knew, so I'm thrilled to see it,

and it makes a lot of sense

that a place like this would be so popular.

It's really full.

I'm going back for more.

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[Kendra grunting in satisfaction]

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Alapar is elevated fusion, marrying the atmosphere

and technique found at a Japanese izakaya

with Spanish flavors and ingredients.

Because both cuisines prize seafood and simplicity,

it feels like a perfect match.

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[Jaume speaking in foreign language]

Oh, wow. Local. [laughs]

[Jaume] Yes.

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I've never had a nigiri

with caramelized onions on top.

It really gives it a completely different flavor,

but a really nice one.

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I've had so much nigiri in my life,

but this is really tasting like the stuff

that I've ate over the last couple days

because it's really centered

in the ingredients of the region, which feels super special.

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This one tastes the most traditional Japanese to me.

[Jaume speaking in foreign language]

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For food in particular, I love that no matter where I go,

I find that it's an expression of love and affection,

of finesse and skill, and of community and culture.

It's as much an artistic medium as a connection to our past.

When I get home to my kitchen in Brooklyn after this trip,

I'll definitely be scrolling through the pictures

I took of the oxtail stew at Ca L'Estevet,

scheming of how to integrate those flavors

into my own cooking, and dreaming about what place,

cuisine, and culture I'd like to experience next.

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