L'eixample

Omeia
C/ Aragó, 211
Barcelona, Spain
www.omeia.es/

I met my bosses, Lee & Lauren, co-worker, Paulina, and two ex-employees, Alfonso & Ariel, for dinner at Omeia. (side note- there is an absurd amount of Lebanese/Greek/Syrian food here. I think I've eaten more falafels here in Barcelona than in my whole life combined...not even exaggerating).

The food was really great. I especially enjoyed the babbaganoosh (which I derived to be roughly a mint-peppers-cous cous salsa) and my Kebbeh was also quite good (chick pea & hummus croquettes), although I must admit that they didn't taste different from falafels to me, as far as I was concerned they were football-shaped falafels. My promiscuous palate doesn't know the difference :/

The people who own/run the place are really sweet. Also they have a 2 year-old son who is positively adorable. We watched the game on their plasma-screen TV, but the restaurant was empty so it was really quiet, which is nice I suppose.

Orxata

Horchatería de Santa Catalina
Plaza de Santa Catalina, 6
Valencia, Spain
horchateriasantacatalina.com

Orxata is sooo good. It's a rice-y tasting drink which originated in Valencia. It's made with rice in Mexico, but in Valencia it's made from chufas... chufas are an underground nut that grows at the end of a bunch of grass. Here, just read about it on wikipedia.

Plus we got these amazing cream/chocolate-filled donut sticks to dip in the orxata...

Cielito Lindo

Mexico lost one of their World Cup games tonight, so of course we had to sing and drink away our sorrows...ay ay ay ay, canta y no llores!

icebarcelona
C/ Ramon Trias Fargas, 2
Barcelona, Spain
www.icebcn.com

There's a real ice bar in barcelona (very clearly and unoriginally named icebarcelona)! And it's on the beach! We watched the game in the outside bar/terrace.
The amaretto sour was delicious and depressingly overpriced at 9 euros :/




La Coronela
C/ Consolat De Mar, 23
Barcelona, Spain
www.lacoronela.es

As far as I can tell this is an EXCELLENT Mexican restaurant. Delicious nachos (frijolessss!). Delicious guacamole. Delicious mangos & cucumbers covered in shredded carrots and chili powder (forgot what it's called, but you can see it below). Also, 1 EUR tacos on Sundays!

TAPASSSSS

Bilbao Berria
C/ Sagristans, 5
08002 Barcelona, España
defunct website

A couple days ago we went to the best tapas restaurant that I've eaten at so far--. It was delish! It was basically a la carte/buffet style. They had platters of all different sorts of tapas so you just took which ever ones you wanted. There's a skewer in each one and you keep your skewers and then they count the number of skewers you had and then charge you 1.5 euros for each one. There were 5 of us and our total bill came out to be 51 euros, including the pitcher of sangria that we ordered, aka. 10 euros each, not bad at all!

Starting on the left going counter clockwise: shrimp on mashed potatoes, tuna salad with a few strips of raw tuna, salmon topped with some sort of delicious cream sauce and cheese


In the back is a slice of some sort of sausage topped with cheese, asparagus, and a runny quail egg. In the front is an oyster shell filled with a cheesy/oystery blend and possibly baked with bread crumbs on top.



A couple days later we hit up another tapas restaurant of the same concept...

Sagardi
C/ Argenteria, 8
www.sagardi.com

Starting left and moving clockwise: Cheese topped with a sweet sauce and pine nuts, crab salad in a croissant with carmelized orange peels on top, a sort of consolidated sweet and savory rice/meat casserole topped with a peach slice and ham. I think I actually enjoyed these more, but the place was so crowded it was hard to have a really nice time...


Yummmmm.