What we're eating are sugar cookies with cream filling which is good because there's no way I could pack in a sub now. From the pictures, a bocadillo is what you and I call a hero or a grinder, a sub or a po' boy with meat and cheese. I check now and it turns out bocadillos are sandwiches made specifically from Spanish bread you cannot use sliced bread and on this they are quite clear. High school Spanish did not take in food so I ask the server to spell it. Our meal finishes with dulce de leche bocadillos. My Manchuela bobal is soft and it must be raspberry with chocolate that sends me out to buy it. It goes nicely with tender grilled lamb chops and arugula salad. It's Chinaco blanco tequila, orange, lime and jalapeño all of which are surprisingly good. It is not something we can solve tonight so instead we order pitchers of sangria with more than a touch of brandy, rum and amaretto and that explains everything that happens later.Īnother night Lan is drinking their spicy hot dahlia. So for now, the Brookline jury is out, undecided about saffron. Like everything, the community is adamant about how it tastes and where to buy it and what you might think to substitute for it (which you cannot). So I confer online and here's what they say: saffron is the most expensive spice in the world I didn't know that. Even then when we were kids, as in little kids, I got it: something that makes it different from say, rice in Asian cooking. My brother Paul, keeper of Mom's recipes, reads what she used: shrimp and littleneck clams there is chicken but no sausage onion, rice, garlic, paprika, saffron and pimiento. Los peces are perfectly cooked, we love the shrimp and yet I want fish broth or something. He's proud and rightly so because it is beautiful. In fact, the chef himself brings it to the table. Here, there is no saffron and is it missing the something that makes it, I don't know, Spanish?Ī couple of weeks later, the cool New Jersey cousins order the mariscos, seafood paella with shrimp, squid, clams and mussels for $24.50. I read that in Valencia paella is cooked over orange and pine wood which makes it aromatic. I think you need that aioli and then some. It arrives in a paellera so big I think it must be for four, but no, it's for two. It's rice with carrots, mushrooms, parsley, broccoli rabe, onion, squash and Brussels sprouts topped with garlic aioli. Our Garnacha is oak-y with raspberry Vouvray is fruity and bright.Īnother night we have the verduras, or vegetable paella that's $16 per eater. Calamari's one of a number of tapas that's fish-based along with skate wing, lobster fideos, mussels and prawns à la plancha. We like aioli with habit-forming hot peppers. However, if there's calamari in the kitchen and you ask just right, the chef will make it for you, our server says. It used to be on the menu but I don't see it now. Olives, yes, olives are olives but not a bite of cheese: Gallego, Romao, Malvarosa, Mahón and Valdeón.įried, sometimes crispy, calamari with no peanuts, no peppers or garlic is how we like it. So is it because it's green or that it goes with meat and cheese tapas? Funny, in all our meals with a changing cast of characters only some of whom are vegetarian, no one orders any cheese. Spinach and chickpea cazuela: each time I order it, everyone who's not a regular spinach imbiber hogs it. It's not on the menu now but there are others: kale with anchovies greens with goat cheese and raisins raddichio with raisins shaved mushrooms with celery and mustard plus ensalada with onion and no raisins. It's light and filling and if they make this in Spain, authentic. Julie is having carrot salad with arugula and avocado. There is beer and there are cocktails and there is wine by the glass. The Viognier is fruity and the Rioja is um, boring, but not as boring as the Nutcracker. We choose a Viognier from Argentina and white Rioja from Spain. What nails it for us: they have tastes of wine.īarcelona's taste is half a glass and this is after the sips they bring first so you can pick a taste. Our first visit comes after an interminable Urban Nutcracker. We're talking three deep at the bar Friday and Saturday and reservations all week. It's a big deal with something for everyone. It's a place your very own New Jersey food-wise cousins pick from online reviews. Where there was nothing, there are heady times. What used to be a quiet street is now where it's at.
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