Friday, December 05, 2008

Lonja de Tapas, Barcelona

Pimientos de Padron fritos con sal Maldon

We had no idea if this place were going to be any good, as our initial destination was shockingly packed to the brim with people waiting to get a seat. So we backtracked a bit and randomly stoppped here (5 Placeta Montcada, 933-151-447) to pick out a number of tapas, ranging from simple marinated artichokes to deep fried camembert, not to mention some grilled pork that made me jump for joy.

Yes, we were quite happy with it all. The deep fried peppers above were rather mild - much more like Japanese shishito rather than a Mexican jalapeno - but were still a great excuse to eat grease and salt. A big grin instantly appeared on my face when a bright red oil oozed out of some grilled sausages. And even something as simple as tomatoes seasoned with olives and anchovy dressing came topped with thin slices of deep fried pork lard. Nice.

Now, the requisite Catalan tomato bread wasn't as fun as the traditional DIY version, but the tomato and garlic mixture was at least provided on the side so that the super thin bread didn't get soggy. Also of particular interest was the tres texturas de chocolate, whose three layers of chocolate were interestingly topped with a touch of olive oil and Maldon salt. It sounded weird but it really did work.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

loved this place. We went tonight. We too were skeptical of it being good, but luckily it was! Among the tapas we had, the ones that stuck in our head were the spicy sausage with chimichurri and potato meatballs. YUMMY!!