Monday
Breakfast around the coffee table in the living room: fruit salad, eggs, bacon and toast. Bob tells us that when he and Marni go to a new city, they like to take a city bus tour to get the lay of the land. We all think that is a good idea.
Parc Guell
We find a bus just up the street and sit on the upper deck. The bus tour commentary isn’t particularly inspired, but the sights make up for it. Everywhere your eyes land, beauty is there. About half way through the bus tour we hop off at Carmel Hill to head up to Parc Guell, a park named for it’s creator, Count Eusebi Guell. The park was designed by Antoni Gaudi in the early 1900s. Gaudi lived in a house on the property the last 20 years of his life till his death in 1926. It is now a Gaudi museum. The view from the Parc is spectacular. You can see all the way to the ocean...
Petit Comité
We hop back on the bus and tour back to our apartment. That night we have a date with Petit Comité, a Catalan cuisine restaurant recommended by Bob and Marni’s chef friend, Erez Levy.
We hop back on the bus and tour back to our apartment. That night we have a date with Petit Comité, a Catalan cuisine restaurant recommended by Bob and Marni’s chef friend, Erez Levy.
Rested and freshened up, we walk to the restaurant in anticipation of a great meal. Petit Comité is run by Michelin-starred chef, Nandu Jubany and who is touted as a food-lover's benchmark in haute cuisine. We are formally escorted into a private room with a large round table set with fine linens and dinnerware. Erez was right. The food does not disappoint:
Paper thin slices of crispy pork cheek
Mushroom soup with caramelized onion and blood sausage (below)
Small round loaves of crusty bread with Spanish olive oil
Anchovy stuffed olives
Ham croquettes
Codfish fritters
Asparagus, eggplant, red peppers, anchovies with Romesco sauce
Veal steak - Bob
Veal Fricassee - Peggy
Monkfish - Marni and Bart
Pig trotters - Wally
Hake - Ted
Red tuna - Chris
Desserts:
Grilled caramelized pineapple with coconut ice cream
Rum Baba
Cheese plate
Chocolate birthday cake (Bart and Bob’s birthdays)
Lemon marshmallow
Chocolate Squares
Olive cake
As the evening progresses, the formal waitstaff becomes a little looser and friendlier. By the end of the meal, our waiter, José, is smiling and making jokes right along with us.
Just before we leave he says, “Can you guys keep a secret?”
“Of course we can!”
“Well don’t tell anyone,” he looks over his shoulder mysteriously, “but did you know that this building used to be a hospital?”
We shake our heads “no.”
“It was a hospital,” he repeats. The he lowers his voice, raises an eyebrow and says, “And this restaurant? It used to be ... the MORGUE!”
His delivery is so dramatic, we all burst out laughing, including José. It's the perfect end to a fabulous day as we walk back to our Dracula apartment in the middle of the night.
(Más blogging to come...)
(Más blogging to come...)
