Brief culinary tour of Spain

So after collapsing in heap of exhaustion at around 2 am following the launch of Dine In Vancouver, I got up the next morning and headed off to airport for a short family vacation in Costa Brava, Spain. The food in Spain is amazing, each bar offering its own tapas. The tapas bars generally have one guy or gal who acts as owner, chef and bar person. My advice: when having a night out in this part of world, have a siesta, don’t go out until 10 pm at the earliest and avoid the temptation of scoffing your face at the first bar, pace yourself – one or two tapas at each bar, then move on to the next.

The superb chorizo, jamon, fresh fish (the sardines, baby squid and the sweetest of ruby red prawns all a must), cheeses, and oh don’t forget the pastries made it difficult to leave. We did manage to have a few meals out in town not involving tapas. I can thoroughly recommend the negro arroz or black rice, which is essentially a version of seafood paella flavoured and coloured with squid ink. Sounds a bit over the top, but trust me it delicious and you don’t have to worry about waking up with a mouthful of black teeth. If you want to try a slightly unusual easy to do at home tapas, try out the simple combo of crostini topped with a slice of ripe camembert with a slice of roasted red pepper and loads of black pepper. I think some time in my life I would love to do a 3 month culinary tour around Spain – one day…