Taverna del Bisbe
Sagardi
Argentina, 62
08003 Barcelona
Barcelona, and the rest of Spain in general, is thought of as a summer destination. From the way the city is set up, it looks like it gets flooded with visitors seeking sun, fun and shopping.
Christmastime is also a fun time to visit. I think that you get a more intimate experience this time of the year. The city gets really involved for the holidays, and you can tell that they do it not just for the tourists, but also because they have a long tradition of sponsoring arts and cultural events. And because it's Christmas! There are a lot of outdoor stages with scheduled performances (the schedules and venues are well-advertised), not just in the touristy areas, but in the local shopping areas too.
By the Sants area, we strolled around Christmas stalls and watched live belly dancing (out in the cold, no less). The Ramblas/Barrio Gotic area, which is the historic section, gets decked out in pretty lights and has tons of craft shops, food shops and shows as well, so it was great walking around and taking in the festive atmosphere. There were loads of tourists, and loads of locals doing their Christmas shopping.
After walking a bit, we stepped into Taverna del Bisbe for a quick beer and a light snack.
DJKung ordered the bacalao, cod on a bed of tomatoes and olive oil.
Window shopping is a lot of work! After browsing at chess pieces, shoes at Tascon and candy-like jewelry at Majoral, we were ready for refueling.
Sagardi is a very cute place that serves tapas, hors d'oeuvres style. The term they use is "pintxos donostiarras" and I was unable to come up with a good translation of this.
After employing our rusty Spanish (Catalan is spoken here in Barcelona) and a few pantomined gestures, we figured out that you just help yourself from the plates in front of you. In the end, they count the number of toothpicks on your plate.
Here's one of the selections. It looks like crabmeat topped with a cherry tomato and a pickled pepper.
The entire bar had plates of these tapas and the lighting was simply gorgeous. The top one looked like mozarella cheese and roasted pepper; the bottom one looked like tuna topped with a blade of chive.
Here's a trio that we got: pickled fish topped with lemon zest; jamon; chorizo. Despite the bite-sized portions, they were remarkably filling washed down with some beer.
I think DJKung is enjoying this too much.
After this light repast, we continued to stoll about and made it as far as Barcelonetta, which is the area close to the water. It was a bit chilly out so we ducked into one of the old churches in the area, Catedral de Sta. Maria de Seu. This is an old gothic-style church (circa 15th century, I think) with soaring pillars and stunning arches. This church was just spectacular, and according to the guidebooks, the best church here in Barcelona, architecturally speaking.
Not only did we get to warm ourselves in the church, but we also lucked out and got to see part of a live choir, with full-on orchestral music accompaniment. It seemed that this was a really special performance because the church was packed and the event was being filmed for the evening news.
Afterwards, we ducked into a small nondescript bar for dinner. The food here was surprisingly good too.
Squid legs in tomato sauce. Very full of flavor, and I this this was canned squid too.
Fried little fishies.
Patatas fritas.
Superfatty havin'a drink. Yum!
