Barcelona's cuisine is a clear example of what good Mediterranean food should be. Barcelona's cuisine merges tradition and innovation. In Barcelona, the best quality olive oil, vegetables, produce, fish and meats are the norm, making up a cuisine that is both delicate and delicious and that will please the most demanding tastes.No matter what your budget or belly size, you'll find something to suit in Barcelona. Catalunya produces a variety of fresh seafood, meat, game, and fruit and vegetables, which are combined in unusual and delicious ways. Its dishes are varied and original due to the proximity of both the sea and the mountains, which offer their fine products. The sea gives Barcelona plenty of fish and seafood, like anglerfish, hake, cuttlefish, cod, prawns and shrimp, used to make many of the most traditional dishes.For some time now, Barcelona is one of the leaders in world gastronomy. The first Spanish food revolution came in the early 1980s with a group of enlightened Basque chefs who had the audacity to steal some of the stars and the limelight from their French counterparts. In fact, one of the chefs who made this culinary revolution possible was Ferran Adriเ (with his legendary restaurant El Bulli on the Catalan coast), a chef whom Time listed as one of the 100 most influential people in the world today. Other famous chefs in this part of Spain are Carme Ruscadella, Santi Santamarํa, Sergi Arola. "New Catalan Cuisine" has even been hailed by the French as the next great culinary wave. In 2004 six restaurants in the region received the coveted Michelin star.The combination of both sea and land gives rise to an original cuisine that knows the secrets of mixing the most diverse flavours. Some of the most deliciuos food you'll find in Barcelona are seafood casseroles or "Zarzuelas", delicious and very practical dishes since they can be made with basically any and every fish in Catalu๑a. Other fish dishes include the cod esqueixada and the suquet de peix (a traditional Catalan fish stew).Typical desserts are Crema Catalana, Mel i mato (of curds and honey), and the Postre del Musico ("dessert of the musician") with pine-kernels and raisins. In the same way, after the luch, you have to drink some wine. The wines of Catalonia are the red wines from Peralda, Alella, Priorat and Tarragona, white wines from Pened้s and of course the famous Cava (sparkling wine).
