Breathless in Barcelona
- - - - - - - - - - - -
By Tara FT Sering
In the middle of the new high-rise capital called Ortigas Center, Barcelona Restaurant allows you to sample real and pleasant Spanish sensations of the culinary kind. Specializing in Catalan cuisine, Barcelona (named after the capital city of Catalunya, a region of Spain) opened in 1996. Sitting amid that cluster of dining establishments called the El Pueblo Real de Manila, the restaurant is owned by four local businessmen and a Spanish partner who runs a chain of the same restaurant in Spain. In this metropolis obsesssed with tall, box-shaped buildings that all look alike, El Pueblo, by the way, is a godsend in architecture with its diagonal lines, various shapes, baked-brick driveway, and motley colors. One building is mustard-colored, another is brownish-red, and yet another is painted light blue --- take your pick.
At a time when good dining with friends is almost the only consolation after a week of grinding one's teeth at the office, picking a place to eat can be a good gauge of one's imagination: the greatness or severe lack of it. Some of us cop out and choose restaurants that serve bandehados of bland food. But occasionally we make wise decisions as a result of having carefully considered the following: does the restaurant have parking? Will it be crowded, and therefore, noisy? (And speaking of noise, has the restaurant joined the bandwagon of having its staff sing for birthday celebrants?) For people who love space, will the place be cramped? Is the service fast and friendly? And, most of all, in this age of mass production, is the food good? "Good" must be qualified, too. Good food means it looks appetizing, it's tasty, it comes in just the right quantity, and it's worth your money. That's basic.
So it's Friday night in Metro Manila, and my friends and I pick the light blue building in El Pueblo. The sign at the entrance reads "Barcelona" in bright red script. The restaurant offers valet parking, which really is the way for commercial establishments to go --- especially restaurants --- in this capital tight with people and cars. In less than 10 minutes, we are in the restaurant and seated.
Barcelona's interior is attractive in a quiet way, and for the first few minutes before making our orders, we let our eyes travel carefully throughout the place, trying to pinpoint its charm. Simple, one of m friends say. Clean, says the other one. Unified, says a third who more or less has "art" words embedded in her vocabulary while the rest of us don't.
A quick chat with manager Fred Hernandez left us well-informed of the spacious restaurant's classic-contemporary Barcelona motif --- a mix of understated elegance and comfort. Thin wooden slats panel the light mustard-yellow walls. There are occasional reddish-brown columns inside the restaurant, and from the high ceiling hang clear glass lamps with soft yellow bulbs. And you know what they say about yellow lighting--- it adds drama, and everybody looks good in it.
Catalan cuisine is one of Europe's oldest. Its history reveals a dynamic cuisine which accommodated the changes and pluses of whatever culture landed on the Catalonia shores. So though Catalan dishes are quite simple --- generally using seafood, vegetables and natural herbs and spices --- one can always be sure of an imaginative and exciting meal.
Virtually oblivious to Catalan cuisines, except for the usual paella and callos, we were assisted through the menu by a patient waitress who gladly explained the differences between paella dishes. From Barcelona's kitchen of homegrown chefs (all trained by another Filipino chef who had resided in Barcelona, Spain for 20 years) come our orders. For tapas (appetizers) we had Christorra Frita (fried Spanish chorizo from Navarra), and for awhile there we had forgotten they were just appetizers and gobbled up as much of the fried morsels as we could.
Then we had Paella de Arroz Negro con Chipirones, rice with squid cooked in its own ink. One serving can satisfy two persons, and for bird-like eaters, maybe three. This was worth our blackened lips and teeth, and destroyed all our prejudices against the dreaded squid ink. With occasional dabs of garlic mayonnaise, the paella drove us beyond all pretensions of civility and into gluttony. To go with the paella, we had a variety of breaded chicken cooked to a delightful golden color. One of them was the Croquetas de Pollo, juicy chicken croquettes with delicious crisp coating.
For dessert, we balanced the dancing flavors of herbs and and spices on our tongues with Postre de Torroella de Montgri, a bittersweet concoction of ice cream with hot chocolate and a ring of rich crema catalana.
One of my friends, gushing about the food throughout the meal, promptly returned the next day to sample an open-faced sandwich with Spanish omelette for merienda.
To the figure conscious (at 20-something, aren't we all?), a brief message: Catalan cuisine is one of the healthiest. As with most cuisines of the Mediterranean, this kind of Spanish cooking relies heavily on the freshness of its ingredients for its flavor. Dinner in Barcelona is reasonably priced, what for all the good food and soothing ambiance. Dining there is as rewarding as kicking off one's shoes, and perching both feet on a thick, cushiony ottoman, all on a Friday night.
Tara FT Sering is from the University of the Philippines and is the author of a collection of non-fiction narratives Mad Scrambling in the Corner.
