After so many years of romancing food technology, it sounds like the Catalans are getting their feet on the ground again. The incursion of genetically modified corn on an organic farm where local varieties were being grown got people’s attention here last year. Then a group of Catalan farmers — La Assemblea Pagesa de Catalunya — began to organize in favor of a law banning the production of GMO foods in Catalonia. The first step toward getting such a law considered by the Catalan parliament would be the collection of at least 50,000 signatures on an anti-GMO position statement. Som lo que Sembrem (”We are what we sow”) emerged to take up the challenge.
On August 20th, they turned in 105,896 citizens’ signatures in favor of:
- Declaring Catalonia a GMO-free region;
- Enacting an immediate ban on transgenic crops;
- Requiring clear labels on products which have used GMOs at any stage in their production as well as labeling for non-GMO products;
- Imposing a moratorium on GMO development in Catalonia and providing support for research on their effects.
The coalition has defined itself broadly as representing the goal of “fair agriculture” not limited to environmentalism but concerned with economic life, health, and nutrition as well. It seems promising that they’ve brought together farmers, city folks, chefs (including Santi Santamaria), rock-star wine makers (Lluis Llach), and hotshot university scientists in support of their position.
A coalition to root for, seems like. I hope my Catalan friends will get involved — and keep me posted.
Walking down Carrer Parlament in Barcelona’s Raval one day in June, I came across a place that brought back sweet memories of summers in that city. The neighborhood has become trendy, but Horchatería Sirvent is still there, righteously unhip. (more…)
Step away from the red gazpacho. Red means canned tomatoes or tomato juice have gone into the hopper. Both lend a distinctly cooked flavor to a soup that is supposed to be all about fresh summer produce. Here’s the thing: Gazpacho’s true colors range from pink to orange to white, never red.
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If you thought the pimientos you ordered in New York or Madrid this winter were good, belly up for another round pronto. What you get, especially if you happen to be in Galicia, in the northwest corner of Spain, will put those wimpy winter peppers to shame. Midsummer is the season for the intensely flavorful, rarely spicy Pimiento de Padrón. (more…)
Those formerly Galician, formerly mid-summer-only, thumb-size pimientos de padrón have become, in a slightly skinnier incarnation, a year-round item at every tapas bar in Barcelona. Now they’re everywhere in New York, too. Even though they weren’t quite in season yet, I couldn’t help ordering them on my first trip to Boquería where Suba chef Seamus Mullen turns out these and other tapas that taste real enough to soothe a longing for Spain. (more…)
The polyester patchwork jacket on their man at the front of the house says it all: “this place is so cool it hurts.” (more…)
As you drive into La Bisbal d’Empordà, your romantic image of what a historic pottery-making town ought to look like (quaint cottage workshops complete with artisans at the wheel) takes a withering blow. The place is dusty, for one thing — sitting on a great big expanse of clay since the dawn of time will do that do a town. But take it slow here and you will find enough artisanal pottery and good eats to make you forget the scruffiness and want to come back for more. (more…)
Barcelona chefs Jordi Butrón and Xano Saguer caused a commotion when they opened their restaurant, Espai Sucre back in 2000. This was before New York City’s Chickalicious and other experiments in dessert-only menus were on the scene. They came out swinging with philosophical fervor about pastry chefs being chefs, not just twinkie-headed extras. Desserts, they argued, needn’t always be sugary afterthoughts. And now, with a little forethought, visitors to Barcelona can get a taste of their techniques . (more…)
Getting to the Penedés wine country from Barcelona is as easy as last week’s New York Times travel section article (”Catalonia’s ‘Champagne’ Country“) makes it sound. About an hour’s drive gets you to the big-volume producers travel writer Sarah Wildman mentions. What she doesn’t offer a clue about is that another half hour and a good map will take you away from the “Disneyesque” Cava touring she describes. (more…)
I have craved this salad off and on since my friend Juani’s mother from Granada made it for a winter picnic ten years ago. We set ourselves up in a clearing just above the town of Rupit (in the province of Barcelona, all cobblestones and 16th century stone houses built into steep rocky hills — worth a visit). It was Christmas day, so the air was cool but the sun was bright and somehow that combination of warmth and refreshment seemed perfectly expressed in what we were eating: juicy oranges, salty cod, tart green olives, a little heat from a red onion, a touch of richness from a hard boiled egg. (more…)
They say it’s spring but it’s cold out and my head is stuffed up and I’m convinced the only cure is the rosemary soup Inés Puigdevall makes at her beautiful casa rural, Mas Garganta, near Olot. I guarantee this soup will lift you out of almost any kind of slump. (more…)
In this lead-up to Easter Sunday, pastry chefs in Catalonia and Valencia are tempering chocolate like mad and sculpting it into eggs and other shapes to adorn the traditional Easter sweet, the mona de pascua. (more…)
Murray’s Cheese on Bleecker Street in New York City has found a new Manchego source and wants us stinky cheese lovers to give this cheese another chance. (more…)
It’s hard to keep up with the slew of Spanish restaurants in New York City, all vying to replace those tired “paella and sangría” menus with clever tapas and high-end ingredients like jamón ibérico. But the new formula doesn’t guarantee a good dinner. If you’ve been wondering what the fuss is about, Islero isn’t the place to find out (or at least not yet). (more…)
If Valentine’s Day has caught you by surprise, just say you’re holding off until La Diada de Sant Jordi, April 23 – that’s the day love is celebrated in Catalonia. There’s no pressure to buy uncomfortable undergarments for the occasion either because to prove their love, the Catalans give one another books. (more…)
It’s tough to come home to a drab office after a vacation surrounded by Barcelona’s design vibe. Konema offers a fix you can take with you, from funny Spanish notebooks, to fancy German pens, or howabout a gorgeous Italian eraser? Also, they stock those locally made Slang bags (you can view the collection online, but Slang doesn’t sell retail on the web), (more…)
Barcelona’s Boquería market is spectacular, but if the Boquería is the only market you see in this town, you’re missing out. (more…)
Yesterday’s “One Pot” column in the New York Times featured cocido, Madrid’s classic stew of garbanzos simmered in a rich, hammy broth. The recipe is from Tía Pol, the Spanish restaurant in Chelsea which will reportedly have cocido on the menu through March. (more…)
A much-younger-than-me friend Katie is spending one of those college-semesters-abroad in Barcelona right now. When she asked about non-touristy things to do, I had to admit that I now go to bed approximately 8 hours before the bars start to rock. So I told her about the Ateneu Barcelonès, (more…)
Two ways to sample Spain’s most venerated pig, jamón ibérico de bellota (a native breed of black-footed pig, reared in acorn-laden oak forests, and carefully salted and cured where the air is just so) here in the USA were plugged in today’s New York Times Dining pages. This is the cured meat people in the know here were buying futures in a couple of years ago.
In case you missed that whole story, The Wall Street Journal’s early account is still up on the Tienda website — tienda’s owners devised the “futures” scheme as they worked with suppliers to get a version of the ham approved for sale in the U.S. (more…)