Stuff Catalans Do
Welcome to Stuff Catalans Do. Here, for easier reading, I’ve combined all the Stuff Catalans Do posts from April 2017 into one. You can read the Intro here. Do you have any Catalonia stories, anecdotes, clangers, to share? Please do so in the comments at the end of this post. You can also join in […]
Stuff Catalans Do: Tombatruites
Tombatruites Making a truita (trooEETeh) de patates (Spanish omelette) is dead easy. You fry the diced potatoes in olive oil till soft. You beat the eggs in a bowl, with salt. You add the eggs to the pan and cook the mixture on one side. And then you flip it over – and end up […]
Stuff Catalans Do: Oli d’oliva and Oliveres mil.lenàries
Oli d’oliva Liquid gold… healthy Mediterranean diet… absolutely delicious. And the Catalans do no less than five Denominació d’Origen Protegida extra virgin olive oils: Les Garrigues, Siurana, Baix Ebre-Montsià, Terra Alta, and l’Empordà. Nothing more to say except the over-the-top ‘I would die without it.’ Oliveres mil.lenàries Some of the oldest olive trees in the […]
Stuff Catalans Do: Nit de Sant Joan
If you love being made to jump out of your skin while strolling peacefully through your local square, if dosing your dog with valium is your thing, or locking yourself in with all the windows closed on a hot summer night, then you will positively adore the Nit de Sant Joan – St John’s Night […]
Stuff Catalans Do: Mar i muntanya, Mató, Montserrat
Mar i muntanya ‘Sea and mountain’ is a type of dish that combines ingredients typical of mountain areas (meat, sausages, game etc) with fish and seafood, as in arrós mar i muntanya For example: pollastre amb llagosta – chicken with lobster pollastre amb escamarlans – chicken with crawfish calamars farcits de carn – squid stuffed […]
Stuff Catalans Do: Jaume 1, Joan, Jordi, Julivert
Jaume 1 Metro station in downtown Barcelona, named after Jaume el Conqueridor (James I of Aragon, aka the Conquerer). Pronounced JOWmeh (as in jowl) preeMEH, Jaume 1 (1208 to 1276) was the longest reigning Iberian monarch, King of Aragon, Count of Barcelona, and Lord of Montpellier from 1213 to 1276; King of Mallorca from 1231 […]
Stuff Catalans Do: IGP, Informàtic, Ioga
Indicació Geogràfica Protegida Chickens (possibly headless) flapping and clucking along the runway amongst the aircraft: this was the image, still indelible, that popped into my head the first time I heard the name Pollastre del Prat. El Prat de Llobregat is the municipality on the Llobregat Delta where Barcelona’s El Prat airport was built, but […]
Stuff Catalans Do: Ebre, Esqueixada, Escalivada
Ebre I knew that the Riu Ebre was Spain’s longest river. That its delta was an important wildlife reserve. For many years I also ‘knew’ that it was the boundary between Catalonia and ‘the rest of Spain’ (Aragon to the west and the Community of Valencia to the south). Except it isn’t. I honestly don’t […]
Stuff Catalans Do: Denominació d’Origen Protegida
Denominació d’Origen Protegida Hazelnuts from Reus, rice from the Ebro Delta, pears from Lleida, butter and cheese from Alt Urgell and La Cerdanya in the Pyrenees… olive oil from Siurana, Les Garrigues, l’Empordà… sorry, my mouth is watering too much to keep on writing. These are some of the yummy Catalan foods boasting the Protected […]
Stuff Catalans Do: Calçotada, Castellers, Català
Calçotada The calçotada is the Catalans’ favourite gastronomic bash, traditional to the town of Valls and environs, and is the festive outing of choice from November to April. The last Sunday in January the streets and squares of Valls are taken over by sardana dancing, parades of musical bands, giants and bigheads, horse-drawn floats, sauce-making […]