Restaurant Journal: Catalan Food

I have really only tries a few Catalan foods while in Europe. The first Catalan Restaurant that I ate at was near Montserrat. It was the first CEA trip of the semester and they wanted to have all the students try the Catalan delicacy. The initial dish was Pa amb tomàquet (bread and tomato with olive oil). This was the first time that I had ever tasted it and I thought it was delicious. The second dish that the waiters brought out was calçotadam, sweet onions that are flame grilled. Calçotadam is a typical, traditional culinary feast in Catalonia. The most famous is held in Valls on the last Sunday in January. Although many of the CEA students loved this dish, I thought it was actually pretty plain and disgusting. There is a traditional way of eating these onions, you hold it up, peel the side of the onion down and eat the bottom where the white part of the onion it. Lastly they brought out Mongetes amb botifarra (beans and pork sausage). The beans were delicious; however, I definitely could have passed on the pork sausage because it was not very appetizing at all. They also served us French fries were awesome with the beans and sausage. Lastly they served us ice cream which I thought was the best part of the meal. The whole feast was amazing though, even though I did not enjoy all of the dishes, I took pleasure in practicing a new culture.