Catalonia
We had a fantastic day today. We finally pulled ourselves off of the lounge chairs to see some of Barcelona. Today’s tour was chocolate-themed! Actually, it was a great way to learn about Barcelona’s history as a shipping city, a culinary influence, and an innovative architectural center.....and hold everyone’s attention!
We met our guide Michelle at the Maritime museum. We learned that she chose this place because the history of European chocolate began here. In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.....what we don’t hear about as part of the rhyme is that from his American voyage he brought many cultivars back to Spain (specifically Barcelona), including cacao and Aztec chocolate recipes! From then on, cacao beans were imported from the Americas. Initially a secret kept in Spain, in the 17th century Louis XIV of France (remember him from Versailles?) married a Spanish princess on the condition that she bring with her the chocolate recipe. From then on, the cat was out of the bag and chocolate was enjoyed in royal courts throughout Europe. Only later did cafes start to serve chocolate to everyperson, and even later that mass-distributable forms (chocolate bars - late 19th c., chocolate milk-early 20th c.) become available.
Michelle told us about Barcelona’s role as a culinary innovator (curre
ntly the source of “molecular cuisine,” which sounds really interesting....), and throughout the day showed us how this played out in the form of chocolate. We visited chocolatiers who had been around for generations (see 150 year old choco
late mill at left that used to be powered by a mule, more recently electricity), and chocolatiers on the cutting edge. Of course, we tasted a bit at every stop! Amory and Riley’s favorite: a raspberry truffle in the shape of a heart, Chris’s favorite: a brandy truffle, MB’s favorite: the xocolate for merienda (see above). One fun stop on the tour was a large fresh food market, open for 800 years! The food was fresh, beautifully presented, and put Whole Foods to shame. There we were able to show the kids what a hazelnut looks like, and to taste some of the fruit that later found itself into fillings for chocolate candies.
Our guide not only knew a lot about chocolate, but also about architecture. She showed us a lot of interesting techniques (see left) and representative buildings by Gaudi and Montaner. One by the latter was the private home of a chocolatier (the Spanish equivalent of Hershey), and it was very fancy. He seemed to love gargoyles, and to the right is an example of a line of gargoyles showing what to do with chocolate: from top to bottom, stir it, eat it, nurse an upset stomach after eating too much...
P.S. GREAT NEWS! The Venetian hotel let us know today that they found Bun, and have sent her back to Newton! YAY!!!!!!!
Amory enjoying Xocolata (the Catalan spelling) at merienda, a Spanish snack between lunch and dinner. Unlike the Brits who drink tea, the Spanish have a thick, hot chocolate with a delicate cinnamon flavor that is practically a pudding. See how well it sticks to Amory’s nose?
Day 20
Xocolata
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Michelle, our fearless leader
The Gordon girls sampling the wares of a 5th generation chocolatier in the “Barri Gotic” district.
Beautifully displayed chili peppers in the open air market
A lovely example of the “sgraffito” technique we saw throughout the city. Two layers of plaster, the first colored, were stuck to the facade, then the top layer was scraped off in places to create beautiful detail. We’d learned a bit about making cameos from seashells and also gold painted wooden sculptures at the V&A in London, and this technique reminded us of those.
Side by side buildings of Montaner (L) and Gaudi (R). The Gaudi columns look like jointed digits, and the balconies look like the eyes and noses of a skull. The Montaner has lots of gargoyles.
