Where's Pat now?: Two special Catalan dishes

Thanks to local culture and my generous hosts, I had two more amazing, delicious meals. Friday night it was Habas a la Catalana or Catalan-Style Broad Beans. The flavor from the onions, garlic, bay leaves and a particular sausage were so good!!! I had forgotten how delicious fresh broad beans are - so tender they melted in my mouth!

Habas a la Cataluna

Saturday's afternoon meal was a “simple” dish of fire-roasted spring onions (calçots, pronounced CALsots) but that doesn’t begin to describe this springtime Catalan ritual (la calçotada). My first clue of something different were the sheets of newspaper spread like placemats around the big table. There was a fire going in the fireplace but I couldn’t tell what would emerge until the first course of appetizers and drinking was over and the main course was presented. Out came the piles of fire-blackened onions and my challenge to figure out how to eat them! It’s a two-handed operation which, if done properly, leaves the charred onion skins in a pile on the newspaper and the edible portion hanging in the other hand. Holding an onion by its top, the outer burnt skin is slipped off by pulling down and the white core is eaten after dipping in a delicious red sauce (salsa romesco). Lets just say none of this involves any utensils! Also served were fire roasted sausages and artichokes. What a sight, three generations of a family talking, laughing and eating messy, delicious and healthy food with their fingers!