The reason why I wasn't too worried about meals in Barcelona was that when we arrived at the apartment and found out that one of the seventeen 1* Michelin restaurants in Barcelona was a couple of blocks away, we jokingly applied for a lunch reservation for the next day and to our surprised it was granted! This restaurant was Alkimia.
Alkimia has a tasting lunch menu/mini degustation for €40 which we all chose to take. It consisted of 5 courses - starters, courses 1-3, and dessert or cheese, plus a glass of wine. We all chose the red (a rioja) and then the food started coming.
Macadamia crispbread. To be honest, I could have eaten all three of these!
Salami with tomato water and olive oil. I really liked this as well!
This I liked much less. I cant remember exactly what it was but it was almond soup with pieces of jamon (?) and garlic. The soup itself was cool and light but whenever I had a spoon with the raw garlic in it, it completely overpowered my mouth for the next few moments in a way that was quite unpleasant.
Following the disappointment of the previous dish, I have to say that I LOVED this one! But you know, lightly poached egg with chips and truffle? I was never going to hate it :D
My chosen main - pork belly. Both Fremma and I thought the sauce was a bit too rich for our liking although the meat was very tender.
My cheese platter. A local sheeps milk, gouda from the Netherlands, and a French blue.
Little chocolate cake petit fours to go with our tea...
And some white chocolate truffles.
We had a slight discussion about this - I'm not sure exactly who said it, but there was a moment where we agreed that it was 'cheap'. Then it occurred to us - exactly at what point does one consider paying €40 ($US54/$AU58/£32) CHEAP?! Especially since I could argue that I wasn't completely happy with everything. Sure, I could eat that egg dish every day of my life but on the other hand, I have paid more for other lunch meals that could be considered 'lesser' but enjoyed much much more *cough F&M high tea cough*. But what was particularly nice was that while we were definitely full, we didn't walk out feeling heavy and overloaded, and really, you can't put a price on that kind of satisfaction.
We then made it back to La Taqueria...but were late by about 20 minutes. They nearly gave our table away but we got there just in time to claim it!
And we celebrated this by having guava margaritas!
Our appetisers - tortillas with melted cheese and mushrooms (wrap the cheese in a tortilla), guacamole and corn chips. Some sauces on the side that we were supposed to put in our tacos. One of them was actually really spicy and kinda painful.
Taco choice number one - beef tongue. Yum.
And the 'special'. I can't remember what was in it but it was tasty!
Here are some canned seafood we'd bought thinking we'd have a picnic somewhere.
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