La Tagliatella

When I decided to come abroad I was dead set on studying in either Rome or Florence, Italy.  Not only was I intrigued by the culture, but Italian food is my all time favorite cuisine.  The lure of authentic Italian pizza and pasta everyday for an entire semester seemed to good to pass up. Even with my mind set on Italy, a friend of mine was relentlessly trying to persuade me to come to Barcelona with her.  Eventually, the promise of a city like New York, located on a beach, with an amazing night life pushed Italy out of the running.  Once abroad, I fell in love with the city of Barcelona.  It seemed to have everything to offer me except the one thing I longed for abroad- good Italian food.

Then, one fateful day, while walking home from class I noticed an ornate red and gold framed storefront spilling out golden light from behind stained glass windows.  The gleaming sign read “La Tagliatella.”  Could it be? An Italian restaurant just five minutes from my apartment?  With high hopes I decided to give the restaurant a try, and ever since that fateful day, I have found refuge in the authentic cuisine found at La Tagliatella.

La Tagliatella has more than 135 restaurants in 50 Spanish towns, as well as in France and Andorra.  Over 20 of these locations are in the city of Barcelona itself. Even though La Tagliatella is a chain, the restaurant’s close quarters, authentic decoration, and delicious cuisine make it feel like a small family owned restaurant nestled in the back streets of a quaint Italian village.  Ornate chandeliers cast golden hues of warm light against deeply colored cherry wood paneling.  Italian inspired decorations adorn the walls while rod iron accents add a rustic element to the decor.  The ambiance is enhanced  even further by an open brick oven kitchen where patrons can look on as their  pizzas are being hand made and fired to perfection.  Reservations are not necessary, but because of the limited space there is sometimes a short wait.

Once seated the friendly staff greats you with a dish of olives.  They also provide you with menus which are available in english upon request.  The menu itself offers a list of appetizers, salads, pastas, pizzas, and of course an assorted list of Italian wines.  What it most delighting about the menu, however, is that it allows for what seems like limitless opportunities to create your perfect pasta dish.  A list of different pastas as basic as spaghetti and as complex as gorgonzola and pear ravioli can be paired with an equally extensive list of sauces.  La tagliatella boasts 400 combinations of pasta and sauce, antipasti, salads,lasagna, cannelloni, and more than 20 different pizzas made in the restaurant oven.  Another awesome aspect of La Tagliatella is that they serve their dishes family style.  This means that the generous portions of pasta and pizza are placed in the middle of the table with serving spoons so that everyone can sample each other’s selections.  In all my visits to La Tagliatella I have yet to find a combination of pasta and sauce that has disappointed me.  During my last visit, my table ordered linguine with bolognese sauce as well as triangoli di gorgonzola e pera(Gorgonzola cheese and pear ravioli) with pesto rosso panna (a sauce made of cream, sun dried tomato, pine nuts and cheese).  This has been my favorite pasta and sauce combination to date!

[A view of the brick oven pizza kitchen]

Aside from the pastas, the pizza looks and tastes just like the pizza I had when I visited Rome just a few weeks ago. The pizza that I most highly recommend is the melanzana which incorporates tomato, mozzarella, caramelized aubergine, parmigiano reggiano, honey and balsamic aceto.  After a large meal of pizza and pasta I usually feel stuffed, but I urge you to save some room for one of the restaurants tantalizing desserts.  These rich sweets are the perfect way to top off your meal!  My favorites include the crepe with vanilla ice cream and coppa fior di latte al cioccolato fuso which combines hot chocolate cream with mascarpone ice cream.

After what seems like a meal fit for a king you would expect a bill of equal magnitude.  Surprisingly, the meals are extremely affordable- especially when you consider that the large dishes almost always ensure you leftovers to be enjoyed at home on a later date!  Although La Tagliatella is great for dining in, they also allow you to call in and get take out.  Especially with such affordable prices, their is nothing better then enjoying some great Italian cuisine in the comfort of your own home.  La Tagliatella has become one of my favorite restaurants in all of Barcelona.  Even my friends studying in Italy agree that it stacks up against their best Italian food!  In 2009 La Tagliatella was awarded the European Foodservice Summit Concept Award, which is awarded to the best catering restaurants in Europe.  They attribute their success to twenty years’ experience specializing in traditional cuisine from the Italian regions of Piamonte, Liguria, and Reggio Emilia.

[An interview of a friendly waitress at La Tagliatella]

Park Güell

The picture at the heading of my blog represents one of my favorite sights to see in all of Barcelona, Park Güell.  Built by the famous Catalan architect in the years 1900-1914, the garden sits on the hill of El Carmel in the Gràcia district of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.  Many tourists refer to it as the “Dr. Suess” park because the modern architectural aspects and colorful tile mosaics.  The entire park makes you feel as if you are in a dream world.  When you enter the park there are two small buildings that remind me of gingerbread houses.  Although they were built before Gaudi created the park, they still add charm and flow nicely with the design of the rest of the park.  Then ahead of you are large curved stair cases the bow out and meet at the top.  In between them sits one of the most famous parts of the part, an oversized mosaic lizard.  On my last visit there, people were all crowded around the lizard snapping pictures.  However, anytime that someone got too close to the lizard an older man with a whistle would begin to blow it wildly and yell.  My friends and I jokingly called him the protector of the lizard.  Once up the stairs there is a roofed section with whimsical columns to walk through before you get to another set of stairs.  Once up these stairs you are led to a large open dirt area encircled by a colorful, mosaic tile bench that curves vastly across the entire area.  All along the bench people sit, take pictures, and marvel at the view of the city.  This park´s light an airy atmosphere is perfect for a picnic on a beautiful spring day, but one of my favorite times to go it at sunset!  When my mother come to visit this weekend this is the first stop on our list of things to see!

La Flauta

Since being in Barcelona I have tried tapas all over the city- but there is one restaurant that I just cannot get enough of!  La flauta restaurant is located on Carrer d’Aribau, 23.  From the outside it appears to be nothing special- just a small restaurant like any other.  If you go around 8 o’clock seating is no problem.  However, as the night goes on, the wait can be up to over an hour.  Even being as impatient as I am I can assure you that this hour is well worth the wait.  The restaurants environment has a modern asian sort of feel, but the food served is all Spanish tapas.  To begin, Sangria is a must.  They have both red and white sangria which I find to be equally delicious as one another.  Then, in tapas fashion one guest orders for the table.  The must gets are as follows; patatas bravas, fried camenbert, calamari, chicken croquettes, mini cheeseburgers, patatas con huevos, fried artichoke, bread with tomato, and mushrooms and asparagus.  This may sound like a lot but I have never been to La flauta and had any food left over.  Besides these favorites of mine the menu is filled with tons of others.  Although they do offer an english translated menu, the specials are always listed in catalan.  This can be frustrating because as I look around at other tables I always see other tapas that I am dying to try, but just don’t know the name of.  Besides the food, the staff is incredible.  One time I went with a group of about 12 people on a very crowded Thursday night.  Despite the long line an close quarter the man squeezed us in- rearranging tables and guests just so that my friends and I would be comfortable.  Also, the food comes out within minute of ordering it- even on a crowded night.  My favorite thing about getting tapas is that they tend to come in waves.  Just as I am finishing one amazing dish- two more arrive for me to sample.  La Flauta is also very reasonably priced.  Even with Sangria and a table filled with tapas the bill usually come out to be under 20 euro.  At first, adapting to food in Spain was difficult for me, but La Flauta is something that I will definitely miss when I am back in the states.

Razzmatazz

Barcelona night life has a lot to offer, but since being here I feel that I have not branched out to the many different types of venues the city has to offer.  This past week my friends and I decided that we would try the club Ramatazz.  My only regret was that I did not find this club earlier in the semester.  Most of what we have been seeing in Barcelona is House music being played in a room crowded with my fellow CEA students.  What we found at Ramatazz was a huge surprise.  Upon entry we had to pay a 15 euro cover, which I’ll admit was a little upsetting.  However, the cover included a free drink and a great experience.  The main room looked onto a large stage and was an enormous space filled with people.  There, a band with at least 10 members were playing upbeat alternative rock.  The music was funky and really great to dance to.  The members of the band helped to create a great visual experience by dancing around on stage, interacting with one another, throwing confetti, and passing around giant balloons to surf over the large crowd.  After their set my friends and I thought that the night was over, but by chance we stumbled upon another room playing our loved and familiar house music.  The night continued like this- exploring new rooms with different set ups and types of music.    The venue turned out to be a huge and diverse seen for Barcelona night life.  We were also very happy to find that we were amongst many more locals then we were used to.  in the future I look forward to revisiting Razzmatazz and experiencing a greater array of live bands and DJs [Razzmatazz’s website and list of upcoming events].