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BARCELONA NEXT
First in a four-part series on the food of Barcelona.
Listen to the sound of julivert (HJOOL-yvurt.) This sweet Catalan word for parsley evokes images of an entire culinary culture for me. The sound is as mellifluous to the ear as the herb is redolent of the cuisine of Barcelona. The elements of the Catalan cuisine of Barcelona are simple: think of bright green herbs such parsley, mint and basil, or fresh vegetables such as fleshy red bell peppers and plump fava beans. Exotic spices, such as saffron and cinnamon, and ingenious liaisons, made from pounded hazelnuts, almonds, pine nuts or bread fried in olive oil, enhance the simple foundations. Mysterious combinations from mountain and sea, muntanya y mar, including squid, lobster, rabbit, meatballs and chocolate, are all elements of Catalan cuisine. The cuisine of Barcelona claims the two extremes of cookery: the utterly simple cooking of fishermen, laborers and farmers, and the ultra-sophisticated cuisine of deconstructive chefs.
One of the Mediterranean's finest, the cuisine of Catalonia was all but unknown to Americans until Colman Andrews wrote his classic "Catalan Cuisine" in the 1980s. He introduced us to an evocative cuisine, but also left us starving for more, because there have been only one or two books written on the subject since. This is remarkable considering the Catalan origin of one of today's most-talked-about cuisines, deconstructive gastronomy. Catalan cuisine is a much more complex and richer cuisine, with more depth and breadth than many of the popular cuisines, such as Tuscan, touted in magazines today.
Julivert
I've read a million food blogs waxing poetic about the cooking of El Bulli and Ferran Adria and not a one talks about julivert. They will all tell you the names and phone numbers of the merchants in the Mercat de Sant Josep de la Boqueria -- the large public market in Barcelona -- but nothing about why traditional Catalan food is so charming. The charm of the name julivert mirrors a Catalan melody in the kitchen. It embodies an intense love and interest in the food being prepared, a joy to please the palate and a longing for an essential taste that reflects and captures the heart of the Catalan experience as it has evolved over centuries.
The quintessential Catalan city, and the biggest, is Barcelona. It grew from a small fortified village in Roman times to one of the most important ports in the Mediterranean and the center of the Catalan-Aragonese Empire that reached its peak in the 14th century. Barcelona declined after that, but only in political importance. Today, the city is one of the most vibrant in the Mediterranean, if not the world. As with all great cities, magnificence is reflected in the local cuisine. The cuisine of Barcelona, and Catalonia in general, is not insular, but looks outward to the rest of the Mediterranean by virtue of its mercantile history.
 Just as the great Catalan artists and architects, Joan Miro and Antonio Gaudi, created wildly fantastic works inspired by a cosmopolitan outlook, so too the cuisine of Barcelona is rich in invention and inspiration. It's a cosmopolitan cuisine and can be distinguished from the cooking of the rural areas of Catalonia. In this four-part series, I’ll try to capture the everyday Barcelona. You can read elsewhere about the $300 dinners of caviar foam in quail eggs. Here you will read about the 5 euro botifarra i calcots sandwiches (veal and pork sausages with grilled wild ramps, i.e. baby leeks) you can make at home.
Gaudi’s Casa Battlo on Passeig di Gracia, photo by Clifford A. Wright
Fishmonger removing sardine backbones at Mercat Abaceria Central in Gracia, photo by Clifford A. Wright
Julivert (parsley), photo by Clifford A. Wright
Patatas bravas, photo by Clifford A. Wright
Botero’s Cat sculpture in Raval, photo by Clifford A. Wright
Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia, Clifford A. Wright
Frank Gehry’s “Peix” (Fish) at Barceloneta beach, photo by Clifford A. Wright
Botifarra i calcots sandwich, photo by Clifford A. Wright
performers on Barcelona’s main drag La Rambla, photo by Clifford A. Wright
Gaudi’s Casa Battlo on Passeig di Gracia, photo by Clifford A. Wright
Fishmonger removing sardine backbones at Mercat Abaceria Central in Gracia, photo by Clifford A. Wright
Julivert (parsley), photo by Clifford A. Wright
Patatas bravas, photo by Clifford A. Wright
Botero’s Cat sculpture in Raval, photo by Clifford A. Wright
Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia, Clifford A. Wright
Frank Gehry’s “Peix” (Fish) at Barceloneta beach, photo by Clifford A. Wright
Botifarra i calcots sandwich, photo by Clifford A. Wright
performers on Barcelona’s main drag La Rambla, photo by Clifford A. Wright
Next week: A visit with a representative of the nova cuina catala (nouvelle Catalan cuisine) aka deconstructive gastronomy, the Cinc Sentits restaurant in Eixample.
Read Part Two.
Clifford A. Wright won the James Beard / KitchenAid Cookbook of the Year award and the James Beard Award for the Best Writing on Food in 2000 for "A Mediterranean Feast."
Photos of julivert (parsley), top, and Gaudi's Sagrada Familia, bottom, by Clifford A. Wright
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