Restaurant Les Espelmes

A slight detour in our Olive Oil Outing and we followed a restaurant recommendation to Les Espelmes, ("The Candles"). One of our top Rustic Catalan Restaurants... if you are willing to make the drive. (read previous post first**)

"Boredom and heat creeped in through the cracked windows and they detoured up a narrow and winding road to eat at a recommended destination..."

Perched on the edge of a cliff and overlooking a hot and dry terrain, "The Candles" sit aflame. They drove higher and higher on the winding road until swerving into the parking lot at marker "km 28." Tumbling out of the hot car they took in their surroundings. Les Espelmes looked like a cabin that had had various additions added on over the years, which added to the precarious look of the cliff-clinging structure. They looked at each other before shrugging and entering into a dark entrance hall. 
The smell of a wood burning oven wasn't noticeable, until the menu was read and re-read again. They dined on a platter of colorful Roasted Vegetables and a salad of Escarole with Bacalao and Romesco sauce. This was immediately followed by two plates of the most perfectly roasted Rabbit with Alioli and Chicken served with more black tipped Vegetables. Every last bit of food was eaten in almost complete reverential silence and the last of the Alioli was mopped up by pieces of roasted potato. Still dreaming of the Rabbit and Chicken, they ordered a Crema Catalana to accompany their scalding hot Cortados, ending the meal with smokey sweetness. 

The Limitless View from Les Espelmes

Restaurant Les Espelmes

Coll de Lilla, Catalunya

Ctra. N 240, km 28

43813 Valls

tel. 977 60 10 42

www.lesespelmes.com

Life Changing Oils

On the previous post, I mentioned Cavaloca Olive Oil. Here is our journey of how we came to find this oil, and how we returned home from an experience that changed our eating lives.

They both had had olive oil. In fact, they had it almost once a day as if prescribed. Quickly boiled fresh vegetables, drizzled with extra virgin olive oil, and a quick flick of salt and white pepper. Other times, they had toasted bread drowned in the same olive oil. A small ripe tomato half would be relentlessly grated over the sliced baguette until all that remained was the thin skin. Slices were finished with salty and smokey meats and interchangeably eaten with smooth and crumbly cheeses. They both had had olive oil. 
An online article mentioned the idea of olive oil tasting, much like a wine tasting. He called, she mapped, and they woke early the next morning ready for their two hour and eight minute drive down south. Boredom and heat creeped in through the cracked windows and they detoured up a narrow and winding road to eat at a recommended destination. Once fed and satiated they fell back into their car and sagged into position for the next hour of driving. 
They waited in a deserted parking lot until being located and led up a rocky dirt road to the isolated location of the olive oil mill. Following the process from olive to bottled and labeled oil, they were then treated with a tasting. The table was covered with small, dark blue glass vessels, similar to candle votives. Each was topped with a clear glass disk.
As instructed they held the blue cupfuls of oil topped with the clear glass lid and let the heat of their hands warm the oil. Not sure what to expect, and knowing nothing other than store-bought oil, they removed the dish and pushed their nose into the void. What filled them was the strong smell of fresh plant life. They stared wide eyed at each other until allowed to put the chalice to their lips and sip this new golden-green syrup. Having smelled the extract still did not prepare for the taste. Unripe banana, tomato plants and green apple skin, among other things, coursed through them. Unlike anything that bears the name "oil," this liquid, this extravagant elixir, would change their lives forever. .

The Dry Terrain of the Priorat Region of Catalunya

The Cavaloca Olive Oil Mill
with
2,000 year old (at least) Olive Tree

Three of Five Oils Tasted
Arbequi, Rojal, and Negret

The Blue Glass with Lid
used in Tastings

Cavaloca

C/ Sant Miquel, 48 Cabacés 43373

tel. 977.839.399 / 639.449.797 

http://www.molideloli.com

Summer Salad

One beautifully hot (but not humid) summer night, we dined on this deliciously filling salad!

Red Butter Lettuce, Blanched and cooled Asparagus and Flat Beans, then thinly sliced Sliced Tomatoes and Hard Boiled Egg

Sprinkled and Drizzled with? Finely ground Sea Salt and White Pepper and Arrels de Cavaloca (Arbequi) Olive Oil.

Falling

Barcelona Stormy Sky

It was a late August storm that brought it in. There had been various storms throughout the summer: light showers, overnight pours, major thunder and lightening ragers, and clouds that lost drops as they slowly slid to their destinations. Each was different in it's own way, affecting the people below in it's own way... but this one was different.

The humidity was almost unbearable until some low, dark clouds flowed into the city mid afternoon shutting out the sunlight. There was an uneasy pressure as the high fog closed in around the city and sealed it in like a snow globe. Slightly opened windows creaked open wide with a slight breeze and then it happened. Total release.

All day and into the night it poured, stopped, and poured again. The humidity was pounded down into the cement by the cool, heavy drops and the air turned cold.

The next day all clouds had vanished and any other traces of the storm had disappeared as well. The sun warmed the pavement and dried puddles, but the dry, cool air served as a warning: fall was here.

Spain's Summer Sounds

All windows open to invite movement from the stifling air. Ten o'clock and the light of the sky is like a blanket of calm over the chaos of everyday city life.

A beautiful view of cement walls pock-marked with identical open windows, colorful flowing laundry on cables, and the inviting glow of each and every home. Standing at my window while pulling in my latest catch of blacks, blues and reds, it is the sound of the night that fills me. I stop moving and lean back with eyes closed to absorb the night music of Barcelona life while wrapped in the comforting scent of clean laundry.

classical music

screechy novice violin

boy repeatedly greeting "hola"

a couple making up from an afternoon argument

Fur Elise on piano from new upstairs neighbor

newborn baby crying

little girls singing

laughter 

Hot August Nights

The damp sky pressed down on those who have stayed on through the middle of August. Collages of newspaper and magazine pages cover the windows and glass doors of the small shops in the neighborhoods that skirt the center of the city. Not all have a town home to escape to when the humid heat creeps into the city like San Francisco fog. Those who have no choice but to stay behind, dance a slow dance of their daily routines as if underwater.

She looks both ways out of habit and crosses the abandoned five lane street against the light. There is a strong sense of anticipation in the air and for no explicable reason she wraps the edge of her dress in her fist and runs across the wide street. She lets the material go and notes the movement as it flows against, around, and in between her legs. Seven cars hum by. There is a slight sort of breeze, but it has yet to penetrate the sticky surface of her exposed skin.

Feeling nothing and hearing only the constant sound of beetles in the trees, she passes exactly four people. Each seems to take forever in lifting their legs and returning them back to earth. Her eyes meet with each of the strangers' and hold until it is no longer physically possible. She is overwhelmed with the desire to swim the rest of the way home.

Essence of Sizzling Saffron

There are people who can see and feel things that the rest of the world can not. I'm not talking about ghosts, or auras, or the future, or the meaning of the alignment of the stars. There are people who can savor the aroma of a number, are familiar with the color of emotions, and can let the flavor of a word melt on the tongue like a piece of real, dark chocolate.

This is a composite of stories derived from my experiences in Barcelona. Life is rich with circumstances, environment, experiences, and people. Through the mixing of senses, observations, and imagination, this blog will share the formation of a new life through the eye of a foreigner.

Barcelona from airplane window