Today we continue heading west from Istanbul on our Global Culinary Tour, for a stop in Spain so that I can tell you about Barcelona, Cult Recipes (Affiliate Link) by Stephan Mitsch.

The front cover of Barcelona Cult Recipes by Stephan Mitsch

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Barcelona

The view from Basilica de Santa Maria del Mar onto the narrow lanes of the Born/La Ribera quarter
Photo Credit: Arnold Pöschl

Barcelona Spain is a city that has reinvented itself. This ancient city had a major refurbishment in 1992 for the Olympic Games. It was given a new public transportation system, new airport, and even completely new suburbs. And since all of that it has become a top destination for tourists from all over the world. This is a place worth a visit for so much more that just sightseeing.

A well stocked Barcelona grocery store
Photo Credit: Arnold Pöschl

Now, because Steve and I prefer to travel in our RV we will visit Barcelona by eating its food. By creating the dishes in Barcelona Cult Recipes we can all visit in the comfort of our own homes. I know nothing beats an actually visit to Spain, but with so many of us being cautious due to the corona virus pandemic, this is the next best thing. And you don’t even have to leave your house to get the book or ingredients. Just click one of my links to amazon.com and all will be at your doorstep in a flash! Don’t you just love Amazon?

The History

A collage of dishes at a Tapas Bar in Barcelona
Photo Credit: Arnold Pöschl

The coast, the artwork, the bustling avenues and gothic lanes, the sheer joy of life: Barcelona Cult Recipes will transport you to Catalonia’s buzzing metropolis through its famed local dishes. Stephan Mitsch takes us on a journey into this melting pot of cultures. We can joyfully savor 120 glorious authentic recipes of Catalan cuisine, from the rustic wine cellars, hidden kitchens and stylish tapas bars of this cult city.

Barcelona is the capital of the Spanish region of Catalonia and has always attracted people from all over. As early as the 19th century migrants have come from poorer areas in search of a better life. And with them, they brought their customs from their native regions but more importantly they brought their recipes. This is how Barcelonian cuisine came to incorporate so many different influences such as gazpacho from Andalusia, paella from Valencia, marmitako from the Basque country as well as many other dishes. In addition many others continued to migrate to Barcelona from Near, Middle and Far East, Africa, and South and Central America. This brought even more color  to the culinary potpourri of the city. Along with those immigrants came cassava, plantains, sweet potatoes, mung beans, ginger, curry and soy sauce  which have all become fixtures in the cuisine of Barcelona, a true cocina de fusion.

Seafood

Sea Urchin Foam
Photo Credit: Arnold Pöschl

Fried Cockles
Photo Credit: Arnold Pöschl

Barcelona is one of the only cities that you will come across that makes it so easy to indulge yourself with really amazing food at incredibly reasonable prices. The city lies on the doorstep of the Mediterranean and the surrounding regions are veritable treasure troves of culinary delights. Because of this there is an almost limitless choice of fish and seafood in Barcelona’s best know market, La boqueria. Visiting this market is an invitation to explore the city’s rich food culture.

Kitchen Garden

Grilled Red Mullet
Photo Credit: Arnold Pöschl

Just southwest of Barcelona is what is known as the city’s kitchen garden. Here, in El Prat de Llobregat is where delicious spring onions and cabbages are grown in winter and fantastic artichokes and broad beans in spring. Farmers cultivate a large variety of vegetables here throughout the year including, chickpeas, tomatoes, eggplant, and various types of fruit. Catalans are obsessive about mushrooms and cook with vast amounts of them in the fall. Autumn is the time of year when red pine mushrooms, chanterelles and Caesar’s mushrooms are prominently featured on menus of the local restaurants.

Rice

Traditional Spanish cuisine also uses quite a lot of rice, not just in paella. Fortunately there’s a huge rice growing region a bit further south of Barcelona, near Tortosa in the Ebro delta.

Pasta

But rice is not the only starch that Spaniards love. They also love pasta! A traditional Spanish Christmas dish is canelones, which is a large filled tubular pasta. The region is also famous for escudella i carn d’olla, which is a meat and pasta stew. And we can’t forget about Fideos, a type of thin, short noodles that are usually cooked together with seafood, mushrooms, vegetables or poultry in the same stock.

Poultry

Stuffed Roast Chicken
Photo Credit: Arnold Pöschl

And we can’t forget the importance of poultry in traditional Catalan cooking. Chickens ducks, quail, yummy pheasants and perdices (similar to partridges) are cooked throughout the year in an endless variety of recipes.

Meat

Of course meat also plays a starring role too. Rabbit, lamb, and excellent beef are produced in neighboring regions. Along with that there is venison, snails and most importantly pork.

Crema Catalana also known as Crème Brûlée
Photo Credit: Arnold Pöschl

Gorgeous Plum Sorbet
Photo Credit: Arnold Pöschl

All of these amazing locally sourced ingredients along with the diversity of people living in Barcelona create recipes worthy of cult following. It is certainly one of the tastiest cuisines in the world.

About the author

Author Stephan Mitsch

Stephan Mitsch being transplanted as a child from Frisia in northern Germany to Ethiopia. He later moved back to Germany, to Düsseldorf, then Schwetzingen and Frankfort. His first visit to Barcelona was long before anyone in Germany knew much about the fabulous Catalan cuisine. This was a little over 25 years ago. But he returned in 2000 to settle in Barcelona. And immediately he became almost pathologically curious about the cuisine and culture. He has absorbed as much as possible of the Catalan lifestyle, culture and language, including the unique local cuisine. And he says “Today I’m sure that there is no paradise. G-d lives here!”