We started out our morning kind of late. We woke up at 9am and had a slow morning at Barcelona’s smallest coffee shop called Dalston Coffee a few walks away.
This coffee shop is so tiny and so cute! It literally can only fit a few people standing and ordering. There is 3 small seats extending from the wall to sit inside or you can sit outside. Hanging along the door on your way out are cups and things if you take your coffee to go
Vince ordered the flat white and I got the mocha. The flat white has a bit more milk in it compared to the cortado. My mocha was sweetened with cocoa.
So apparently we have been walking around the La Rambla last night and this morning just window shopping. La Rambla is a social hub area that’s right next to our hotel. Within the La Rambla, we also explored the outdoor flea markets and even the St. Josep La Boqueria market! It had less foods but more market goods, fresh fish, fresh seafood, fruits and lots of spices. We got some saffron spices for 3 euro per gram. THAT’s super cheap!!! I initially bought my dad a package of cured ham, which I found out after that it’s prohibited to bring back to the U.S. NOOOO! 🙁 Sorry daddy I’ll get you something else!
We walked around the market and there was just so much stuff! One of the things that caught our eyes were the juices. On the stands on the outer edge and with more variety, they were selling for 2 euro each. But we found a stand near the back of the stand for just 1 euro each. It was so good! Both were so good and tasted so refreshing, I came back to get a second cup of coconut!
We tried to look up another tapas place for a little snack before our paella cooking class at 8 but we couldn’t find any that were appealing to us. So we decided to go back to CIUDAD CONDAL and try the items that our waitress highly recommended that were very popular and good items.
We ordered “Al ajillo” style shrimps, which turned out to be the garlic shrimp. It wasn’t cooked as perfectly as yesterday’s but it was still very good.
Codfish with honey aioli was the recommended dish to try here. We also saw a lot of codfish with honey variations in Madrid too so we decided that we must try it. It sounds weird but it can be very good! It turns out that it is actually really good! The sweetness from both the tomato and honey is very mild and while both flavors are in the sweet category, it’s different types of sweet and complemented each other perfectly. The codfish was cooked perfectly! It was soft, tender and flaky. It was so moist.
Mini hamburger and cheese. Okay this was the tapa that was recommended to us even though we expressed our doubts. When we ordered it today the waiter smiled and said good choice. Turns out these little adorable things are very tasty and actually pretty good. And yes, that is ketchup to dip the burger in!
Grilled octopus tentacle with potatoes purée. I only ordered this because I was chasing the octopus Galician style that wasn’t on today’s tapa menu. This sounded very similar to it. The difference is that this octopus is grilled so there is a charred textural component. The potato purée is the same! I am satisfied!
We also went walking around the gothic quarter, which is a very architecturally cool admiration but small area. Window shopping was fun too! I kind of eye a bag I might want.
Next, we walk over to a paella cooking class with a professional chef that we booked through Viator called the paella club. The chef was very friendly, talkative and expressive.
Everything was set up mis en place for us prior to class. Each pair got a station to cook a type of paella together. We were at the station of the pork paella. The goal is to make 8 paella’s to share at the end of class. The other paella’s were the seafood, squid ink, vegetables and chicken.
This is our cooking station with our ingredients already prepped for us. We have the rosemary, garlic, extra virgin olive oil, salt, saffron, cayenne pepper, onion, spring onion, 4 different types of mushrooms, tomato sauce, long grain rice, pork fat and pork.
Our cooking instructor explained that back then when they had to eat old bread, they would smush a fresh tomato on it to soften to eat.
Our second course was served in a small cup. I was pleasant surprised at how tasty the gazpacho was! I usually don’t like cold soups.
Maybe I am biased but I think our paella was the best! It also reminded me a lot of the Iberian rice and meats we had in Madrid. So good and savory!
The first of our desserts was this cold melon topped with sweet vermouth. It was an interesting combination of refreshing and watery to the dense sweetness of the vermouth.
Omg. Can I express how delicious this dessert was?! I am so glad Vince was able to stay awake until the end so that I can try this dessert! He drank at least two white wine bottles by himself because it was bottomless drinking while we were cooking so you can imagine how drunk he was at this point!! It was sooooo good! The dark chocolate mousse was smooth and whipped. It contrasted so nicely with the salted almonds. I never knew you can drizzle olive oil on dessert!!!! I found a new appreciation for olive oil.
Overall, it was about 2-3 hours for the paella cooking lesson and including the 5 course meal with bottomless wine drinking. The instructor was very friendly and animated. The rest of the staff was helpful with simple cooking instructions. The place was decorated so cute!!! How funny that the only two cooking classes we ever signed up for are paella cooking classes! 🙂
Time to sleep now! Nite nite!
