Barcelona, Spain; October 2008

You can’t get more classically Spanish than bull fighting but as an animal lover it’s not particularly appealing to me. Stumbling across this chocolate sculpture of bull fighting at the Chocolate Museum in Barcelona was as close as I got to witnessing the real thing during my holiday in Spain, and that’s fine by me.

If you are thinking of going, I must warn you that the Chocolate Museum is not quite as good as it sounds but there are some fun sculptures and a few examples of machinery used in chocolate processing. The ticket is a piece of chocolate with the entry details printed on the wrapper, which got me in the mood straight away. You don’t need to pay to get into the café where they serve a decent hot chocolate and sell handmade chocolates from the attached pastry school.

Bull fighting might be classically Spanish but it’s not Catalonian and it seems the citizens of Barcelona don’t care for it much either. Rather than the matador, the ultimate Catalan symbol is almost certainly Gaudi’s famous colourful lizard. The original is in Parc Güell in the city’s north, but naturally the Chocolate Museum had a sweet copy as well.

The Chocolate Musuem is nothing if not international so not all the scenes were Spanish - there was also an American presence with Bambi and Ben Hur and, my personal favourite, the classically French Asterix.

This post is part of Photo Friday, an event run by Debbie at DeliciousBaby, a travel blog for parents. Bloggers can post a photo that tells a story and link to Debbie’s post. Check out the other submissions this week and my photo post on the famous Gaudi-designed cathedral La Sagrada Familia over at my travel blog Roaming Tales.

• * Lao-Ocean Girl has a review of Star Chef restaurant in Seoul, Korea. It looks mouth-wateringly delicious.

• * I love the sound of these vanilla-poached quinces from Spittoon Extra. Best of all that the fruit was free! Here in the northern hemisphere it’s definitely the season for cooked fruit desserts - we had baked apples and marscapone last night. Heavenly!

• * It’s also the season for fungi. Browners at Around Britain with a Paunch goes foraging for mushrooms - and wisely consults the textbook!

• * At Word of Mouth Stuart Gillies ponders why the Slow Food movement hasn’t really taken off in Britain, while Jay Rayner warns that restaurants going out of business could have serious repercussions for suppliers and British gastronomy in general.

• * Antonia at Food, Glorious Food! cooks duck breasts in bramble sauce - similar to the recipe I learnt at Leiths, though mine was finished off in the oven.

• * Susan at Food Blogga has this mouth-watering recipe for pumpkin pudding. People outside the US might find it difficult to sauce canned pumpkin but it’s not necessary - there is no reason why you can’t cook real pumpkin and then purée it. Each pumpkin variety is slightly different - choose a sweet one that is not too fibrous.

• * Matt from Abstract Gourmet has been in London, exploring some of my favourite haunts like Borough Market and The Eagle in Farringdon and a few places I’m yet to try, such as the St Pancras Champagne Bar. I’m definitely trying te Flat White cafe next time I’m in Soho - as Matt says, London has a dearth of good coffee and I need a few more reliable coffee spots up my sleeve.

• * Test your chocolate geography skills at Intelligent Travel, now in its new home on the web.

• * I hope this doesn’t make a bad person but I laughed my head off when reading Love and Olive Oil’s sorry tale about baking baguettes. Schadenfreude and all that.

• * Jessica at Ripe London shares some thoughts on cooking with heart.

Hola! I’ve just returned from two weeks in Spain with many happy memories, hundreds of photos and a slightly expanded waistline. I’m trying to shed a few kilos before my wedding next April but rather than follow a diet on holiday, I thought I would practise “intuitive eating” instead. Unfortunately my intuition told me to drink Spanish wine, eat vast quantities of Spanish ham and cheese and sample as many different Spanish desserts as I could find.

Well, I say “unfortunately” but the truth is, it was all so good, I don’t really have too many regrets. I’m back on the straight and narrow now but the good news is I have plenty of material to blog about, from restaurant reviews to recipes. I’ll raise a glass of cava to that!

There will be a Spanish theme to my posts for the next week or so, both here and over at my travel blog Roaming Tales.

The foodie web is buzzing this week, from a tribute to Lizano sauce to a review of breakfast at Cafe Paradiso in Ireland.

• * Meg Weaver from Intelligent Travel on Lizano sauce, the Tico condiment of choice. What ketchup is to Americans and HP sauce to Brits, Lizano sauce is to Costa Ricans.

• * Jessica from Ripe London on the joys of hot chocolate to go from Laudurée in Piccadilly.

• * A recipe for orange pound cake that didn’t go quite right from Spittoon Extra. It sounds like it still tasted mighty fine, as did this salmon and spinach tart.

• * I would make it with fresh spinach (or silverbeet / chard) but I like the sound of this tomato, spinach and egg tagine from Kathryn at Limes & Lycopenes.

• * It might be rice pudding by another name but I love the sound of this dessert risotto with wine poached figs from Susan at Food Blogga. I do have a few of those figs left too.

• * A Forkful of Spaghetti on breakfast at Denis Cotter’s Cafe Paradiso in Ireland.

• * Turn away now if you have a queasy stomach - The Best of Mother Earth has a McDonald’s hamburger from 1996 that looks almost as good as new. I think this is what Michael Pollan was talking about when he referred to “edible food-like substances”.

• * Speaking of meat, a UN climate change body is recommending rationing meat to four times per week, according to this news report in The Guardian. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Time to treat meat as a luxury. I’m not saying don’t eat it, I’m saying I believe we should treat it with respect.

• * The Guardian also writes about chef Sophie Wright who has released her first book Easy Peasy: Laidback Recipes for Lazy Days.

• * Finally, I’m looking for more contributors to the Global Breakfast Tournament so if you are interested in representing your country, please let me know. Readers will vote on the best breakfast and the prize is a £10 Amazon voucher.

Spanish and Italian might sound like an unlikely hybrid but it works beautifully at this restaurant in Goodge Street, London.

I had lunch with an industry contact today. His secretary asked me to choose the location since he was away when she was making the arrangements. I never like to do this when I’m the guest as I find it so hard to pitch it - you want to choose somewhere nice and appropriate to the occasion but you don’t want to look grasping by choosing somewhere too expensive.

After a little research, I opted for Salt Yard Charcuterie Bar & Restaurant in Fitzrovia. It’s billed as Spanish and Italian and it is, but I think it veers more towards the Spanish end of things, with a tapas menu, a selection of Spanish cheeses and hams and even a full sherry list alongside the wines.

We followed the advice to order three dishes per person and we got a basket of bread as well. This was more than ample - we couldn’t fit dessert and were feeling really quite full by the end. We started with cheeses with quince paste and a lovely tender San Daniele prosciutto. Our hot dishes included tangy balls of black olive gnocchi, crisp salt fried squid with aioli and garlic prawns with nibbly mushroom bits. The final dish, and the winner for my money, was exquisite zucchini flowers stuffed with white cheese, lightly battered and fried, then drizzled with honey.

We stuck to water and soft drinks through the meal and followed with fresh mint tea. It was still really quite a lot of food and although I didn’t see the bill, I did see the menu and I can’t imagine it was cheap. It’s good value though as the food was wonderful and you can scale up or down according to appetite.

It’s called a charcuterie and serves a large range of meat, including six different types of ham alone. However, there is also quite a large selection of vegetarian tapas and some of the best dishes such as the gnocchi and zucchini flowers came from that menu. Highly recommended!

Salt Yard
54 Goodge St, London W1T 4NA
Tel: 020 7637 0657
www.saltyard.co.uk
info@saltyard.co.uk

Open: Monday-Friday noon to 11pm. (3pm-6pm bar snacks only).
Saturday 5pm-11pm