Hopefully you'll be endowed with a bit more cash during your visit to Barcelona, but if you're struggling or simply want to save a bit of extra cash for later in your journey, these tips might come in handy...
Better tapas for less, and LOTS more of it.
Tapas is not a type of food so much as a style of eating. The word tapas means 'small servings'. Unless you're prepared to spend upwards of 20 euros per head, you'll be lucky to fill yourself up on anything but the most basic dishes, whereas twenty euros spent sensibly at a supermarket will feed three, maybe four.
What about the preparation? How do you make tapas? Easy. Many tapas dishes are served cold, and it's easy to prepare some delicious hot dishes such as patatas bravas (fried potato chunks), salchichas (sauasages) and tortilla (potato/egg/vegetable tarts). Believe me, with a tiny bit of effort, you'll be able to prepare food better than you'd get at most of the affordable joints in town, which are often TERRIBLE.
Emburtidos (Cold meat platter)
Buy yourself some jamon curado (cured ham), chorizo or fuet (local sausages similar to long, narrow salami), sobrasada (a soft, meat and tomato dish in sausage or paste form), and any of the many other varieties of meat stocked by all supermarkets. Simply unwrap it, arrange it all to your fancy on a plate, and Roberto's your uncle. In Spain, red meat, especially jamon, is treated much as other nations treat their red wines. Much as a professional wine-taster can tell the difference between a 1996 and a 1995 Penfolds Grange, jamon conoisseurs can tell the difference between the flesh of the acorn-fed black pig (jamon iberico) and the mountain-bred white pig (jamon serrano). The best can identify the regions in which they were bred, the quality of the breed itself and the age of the meat. Iberico is usually very dark in colour and can cost up to 145 euros per kilo, but don't worry, you can get some half-decent jamon for 11 euros a kilo, and you only need a about 100 grams per person on your platter.
200 grams jamon curado: €2.40
150 gram stick of fuet: €1.35
200 grams salami & chorizo slices: €1.75
Thats a three-person, four-meat platter for only €5.50
2: Plato de quesos (Cheese platter)
The same principle as emburtidos, but with cheese. Try to include a mix of hard and soft, light, medium and strong cheeses. Hard cheeses are generally older than soft cheeses. Sheep's milk is used for the stronger stuff, cow's milk for the milder varieties. Cabra (goat's cheese) is a very rich, soft, spreadable cheese usually served in a small wheel. Sprinkle a few walnuts, pines nuts and raisins over it all. Again, the supermarkets stock an adequate range, but as for most foodstuffs, the markets are where you'll find the best stuff. Check out the Boqueria, a great fresh food market just off La Rambla, about three hundres metres down from Plaza Catalunya on the right.
Pre-packed cheese platter for three: €3.99
A really good home-made platter from from the boqueria: €8.00
3: Pan con Tomata
A very simple but delicious way of preparing bread. Get the best baguette you can afford. Slice it. Toast it. Squeeze a tomato over each slice, rubbing the pulp into the bread. Season with salt and pepper (and provincial herbs if you have an extra euro).
Decent grain baguette: €1.50
Three tomatoes: €1.00
Salt and pepper: Free at the hostel
Total: €2.50
4: Sangria
There are heaps of good sangria recipes on the net. Thanks to allrecipes for this one.
- 1/2 cup brandy
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 1/3 cup frozen lemonade concentrate
- 1/3 cup orange juice
- 1 (750 milliliter) bottle dry red wine
- 1/2 cup triple sec
- 1 lemon, sliced into rounds
- 1 orange, sliced into rounds
- 1 lime, sliced into rounds
- 1/4 cup white sugar (optional)
- 8 maraschino cherries
- 2 cups carbonated water (optional)
In a large pitcher or bowl, mix together the brandy, lemon juice, lemonade concentrate, orange juice, red wine, triple sec, and sugar. Float slices of lemon, orange and lime, and maraschino cherries in the mixture. Refrigerate overnight for best flavor. For a fizzy sangria, add club soda just before serving.Yeah, this one would cost a bit, but it would make two litres of great sangria which would cost at least €20 anywhere else.
The cheaper alternative:
1 litre of Don Simon Sangria: €0.99
5: Other cheap tapas options
Pre-made tortilla for 3: €2.50
Can of olives stuffed with anchovies: €1.30
250gms Pimientos de padron: €1.50
Total €5.30
The entire, luxury tapas feast for three: About €25.00, or €6.50 each.
Not bad eh? And that's a really big, solid feed. You can enjoy yourself for about half that price. And the added bonus is, you can eat your food down on the beach or at the top of Tibidabo, and impress your friends with your know-how once you get home.
Salut!
