The best of Barcelona - Gaudi and tapas

Day 4 (Wed, 12 June 2019)

Perhaps it's jetlag, or there's something about being on holiday that makes me wake up earlier than usual. I was up by 6am which, if you know me, practically never happens. Anyway, glorious day - the rain had melted away and I woke up to pure sunshine!

This morning's tourist visit was to Parc Guell, created by Gaudi. If you don't know, Antoni Gaudi was a Spanish architect whose unique and quirky designs have come to symbolise Catalan Modernism. (Side note: Catalania is the province in Spain that includes Barcelona. Even though its part of Spain, it has its own distinct culture. The people in Barcelona are proudly Catalanian and even have their own spelling and language!) Gaudi's architecture is revered in the architectural world, and can be seen throughout Barcelona.

It's advisable to book tickets to Parc Guell beforehand so you don't have to queue. This is a common practice with Spanish attractions - the tickets have specific timings in half hour slots. I guess that's how they control the crowds. We had tickets for 10am but we arrived slightly earlier and they let us in anyway.

It's whimsical Gaudi-style, with massive structures down to the little trimmings. It's a little like being in fairy tale land.

This one reminded me so much of a gingerbread house!

The park was a lot smaller than we expected though. Although we weren't anticipating Disneyland proportions, this still came across as a little underwhelming. In 45 mins, we had walked the entire park and even dawdled at some spots. There really isn't that much to see, apart from the few main structures.

Ah well.

We searched for a nearby lunch spot and walked down the short road to Terra Mia. It's sort of fusion (Italian, Spanish, Mediterranean) with good reviews for their pastas and seafood. We ordered a tuna steak, a seafood pasta and tomato bread. We can't seem to get enough of the tomato bread in Spain. Each place makes it a little differently but they're all incredibly comforting and delicious. I think it's the way tomatoes are done here. Not my usual favourite veg (fruit?), but here, I love it.

In the afternoon, we paid a visit to Sagrada Familia to complete our Gaudi experience. This unfinished Roman Catholic church is arguably Gaudi's most famous work and is a UNESCO heritage site. We don't have many jaw-drop moments but this was one of them. From the time the taxi rolled up to the massive structure, it was WOW.

It's almost like your eyes don't know where to look - it's imposing, quirky and different in every direction, yet strangely harmonious in a seemingly random manner. There are intricate details at every turn, in every structure, so we ended up gaping like little kids.

Then you enter the basilica and more staring ensues. The pillars look like tree trunks shooting up towards the ceiling because Gaudi loved nature and wanted the inside of the cathedral to look like a forest.

His love of nature also explains why unlike other Gothic cathedrals in Europe which feature gargoyles and angels, Sagrada Familia has unusual carvings like animals and fruit.

Also unlike most Gothic cathedrals in Europe which are dark and sombre, like Notre Dame in Paris, Sagrada Familia is bright and dazzling. 

Gaudi designed Sagrada Familia to be a "temple of harmonious light" to lift the spirit, and he masterfully created a very unusual basilica where light poured in through the magnificent stained glass windows, in a rainbow hue of colours. The left side of the cathedral featured stained glass in cool shades of blues and greens...

...while the right side, my favourite, was like a fiery sunset in its intense variances of vibrant red and orange. Instead of gloom and pomp, this cathedral seems to celebrate life and vigour. I absolutely love it.

In the Sagrada Familia museum, there's an explanation of how the colours were selected for the stained glass to create the reflective effect.

We had booked tickets to the Nativity facade, which features the life of Christ. (Here's a small section of it - you can see Mary and Joseph, Herod's killing of the babies and Jesus as a boy).

To go up the tower, you take a lift up 50 metres, then walk down a winding staircase of 400 steps. I thought perhaps there was a landing where you could see the statues, but no, it's just a short bridge and on the way down, you catch glimpses of different parts of the cathedral through windows or small lookouts. It was still pretty cool though, and from certain places, you can see a panoramic view of the city.

We thought Sagrada Familia would be the highlight of the day, but we hadn't had dinner yet. Curious story: a few days before I left for this trip, I had interviewed D, a church member, for an article I was writing for my church magazine. When he heard that I was going to be in Barcelona, he insisted I ate at Blavis Raco Gastronomic and even offered to help me make reservations. I said ok, but until I googled the restaurant, I didn't realise what a big deal it was that he could secure a spot for me. It has a wait list of up to 3 months and is ranked #19 out of more than 9,000 restaurants in Barcelona!

So now, curiosity piqued, we were very much looking forward to this meal. The restaurant is very small - just 6 tables and maybe 18 seats. It's run by just two guys - Paco who manages the front of house and Marc who does the cooking.

When I entered the restaurant, Paco asked, "You're Monica, D's friend?" Wah, I felt like an honoured guest! Even more so when I found out that since Marc was the only one cooking and he prepares each dish meticulously as it's ordered, they never accepted a full house at any one time in order to properly attend to each group. Throughout the evening, eager diners kept coming through the doors and had to be turned away because they didn't have reservations.

Paco ran through the menu with us, describing each item with detail. We asked him for his recommendations, and ordered 6 tapas and a side of tomato bread.

We also ordered two glasses of tinto de verano. We've become addicted to this alcoholic drink ever since Lesley-Anne introduced us to it. I'm afraid Andre is liking it a little too much.

Instead of being like a usual tapas meal where most of the dishes are served at once, it was more like a degustation meal. Each dish was served one at a time and in a deliberate order. Our first dish was eggplant carpaccio. One bite and we were staggered. It was an explosion of flavours and textures. This is eggplant? Good grief!

The second was asparagus with Romesco sauce. It didn't look very special but golly, that sauce. How can anyone do such magic with ordinary vegetables? I think right then, it dawned on us that we were in the midst of a culinary experience like no other, and we were going to want to savour this moment,

And then the salmon tataki was served. I always feel like I can't be a food blogger because I don't have the words to do good food justice. Just one word: Heaven. This must be what they eat in heaven.

Next, cod omelette. After the previous out-of-this-world dishes, I wasn't blown away by this one, but Kenneth loved it tremendously. He said it was an extremely comforting dish.

Then, grilled beef with teriyaki. The beef was tender and melt-in-your-mouth. It's not our favourite dish because it has Asian seasoning, which we're too familiar with, but still very, very good.

Finally, rice with cuttlefish. OMG. I think Blavis deliberately gives their dishes such ordinary names so that you're stunned when the flavours hit you. Words fail me. It's rich, salty, moist, seafood-y and utterly, utterly brilliant.

By then, the dinner had lasted almost two hours, but we didn't want the experience to end, so we ordered dessert just to make it last. Two actually - lemon pie and violet ice cream.

The lemon pie was a twist on the standard lemon meringue pie, with deliciously tart custard and a crispy crumble. But the dessert that took the cake was the violet ice cream, which Paco had described as using flowers that tasted like berries. The fragrance from that purple cream was floral with sweet berry notes, and the texture of the ice cream was a luscious gooey cream. Andre declared it the "best dish of the evening" which said A LOT.

This was one of, possibly even the best meal I've ever had. I tried to remember when I last had a meal this spectacularly memorable and couldn't. Every dish had so much love and care poured into it. The service was impeccable from start to finish. To top it off, we only paid €83 - for 6 exquisite dishes, 2 desserts and 2 drinks. What a gem. We loved it so much that we asked Paco if we could come back on Friday night, our last night in Barcelona. Alas, they were fully booked. Of course.

Blavis, you have completely redefined a gastronomic experience, in my books. Thank you and thank you, D!