#15. Take a Cooking Class
Other than in high school foods and nutrition – I’ve never taken a cooking class. I never felt the need or the desire until lately. My sister took a class while in Barcelona a few years ago and it sounded like an amazing experience. So, before we left for Barcelona I signed Mirko and I up for a cooking class. I found Barcelona slow Travel online with good reviews and I was super happy I chose them. Cristina and Guillaume started this company a few years ago – have renovated an apartment close to the market they shop at, and provide that locals experience I love to experience wherever we travel.
The day started with a tour of one of the local markets. Mirko and I had stopped into the very busy & touristy La Boqueria market for snacks the days before. The market we were brought to was completely different. It was full of mostly Spanish Abeula (grandmothers), was quiet, calm and clean. We found fresh (still alive) fish, veggies and bread, shopping among the locals.
It was also nice to talk to a local about the city and all its quirks. Our BNB we had there said it was on the 3rd floor. Well I was huffing and puffing up 110 stairs every time we went home. I learned from Guillaume that there was an old law in Barcelona that said you could only build an apartment with 3 floors. What the Spanish architects did to beat the system was name the first and second floors then from the third-floor start counting. Essentially all the buildings were built with 5 floors, yet only claimed they had 3. Good for the owners of the buildings as they now had two more floors to rent out, and I guess good for me to work off all the croissants I ate there.
After the market, we went back to the apartment and started cooking. We made gazpacho soup, seafood paella, tapas and a strawberry sorbet for dessert. One of my favourite recipes was the simplest. Take old bread that’s a little stale. Rub a sliced tomato on it to soften the bread. Drizzle with good quality olive oil and sea salt. It’s an easy way to use up old bread and doesn’t require any cooking.
Over all the experience was amazing. It was super satisfying preparing everything for the meal, like the stock used for the paella. I’m used to convenient cooking, skipping steps wherever possible or using store bought options. This gave the meal so much more depth and flavour. We were joined with another couple from Brazil and it was nice to have conversation around the topic of food, sustainably and the lost art of passing down family recipes. I would recommend Barcelona Slow travel to anyone passing through the city. I am also keen to start taking on more local cooking classes wherever I travel. Because, after all the highlight of my journeys is always about the food!
