Barcelona Revisited

Sorry for the delay in posting. Cutting our trip short, we were able to get back and see Michelle’s grandmother. She’s still hanging in there, good days and bad.

We stayed at two enjoyable hotels, Le Meridien Barcelona, and Le Meridien Ra Beach. First, a couple of quick pictures of our room at Le Meridien Barcelona:

While it was a bit damp, we did have an excellent private balcony, with a great view of the city:

Before we left for Ra Beach, a short drive down the coast, we had dinner at a local restaurant called Barceloneta. A lot of our top choices were closed because of the weekend (go figure), but Barceloneta still got good reviews, and we weren’t disappointed. We had two fabulous appetizers. The first was a dish of sauteed shrimp and squid. We both love shrimp, but neither of us is a huge fan of squid. Well, this was the best squid I’ve ever had. So tender you could cut it with a fork, and great flavor. Our second appetizer didn’t disappoint either, a carpaccio of two local fish. Excellent.

For entrees, I ordered the “large scallop”, and Michelle ordered Paella. You cant come to Spain and not ordered Paella, and we weren’t disappointed. It was prepared in it’s own cast iron skillet, then plated tableside for Michelle:

I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect from the large scallop. There were both large scallops and small scallops on the menu, and the captain spoke limited English. From my broken Spanish and his broken English, we were able to figure out that the large scallop was a feature dish. I ordered one scallop, not really knowing what to expect. Well, I had my first scallop ever cooked in the shell. This wasn’t just served in a shell. The muscle was still attached, and it had been cooked in the shell.

Both entrees were excellent, and we finished off dinner with some fresh profiteroles with chocolate sauce:

An exceptional dinner. If you’re ever in Barcelona, we would definitely recommend Restaurant Barceloneta. Our trip to Ra Beach in the next post. Stay tuned!