El Born Tapa Crawl

When in Barcelona, one MUST make a trip to the El Born area in La Ribera. If one has a deep, rooted love for tapas, then El Born is the answer. The entire area is packed with tapa bars - loud and boisterous to the inconspicuous and tiny. This area is the Gothic district of Barcelona with the prominent landmark, Santa María del Mar Church.

 

One must wander through dark narrow alleys to arrive at tapa central.

 

With much difficulty, we nailed it down to 2 tapa bars. There are self serve tapa bars with all the small bites displayed on counter tops and the other type is where the server comes and takes your order. The first stop was the latter type.

sangria and belini

 

anchovies

 The anchovies drenched in olive oil woke up our wine drenched senses right away, a sharp salty flavor loved by all Catalonians.

foie gras deluxe

 With the upcoming ban on foie, I tried ordering it everywhere we went. This version was by far the most memorable. A big slab of foie, perfectly seared. It hit the spot.

grilled prawns

Our second choice, Sagardi, is a self serve tapa bar with 20ish choices of jamon on toast, olives stuffed with jamon, salmon cream on toast and many other unrecognizable items.

After one too many pinxto's,cavas, and sangrias, we roll our way out of the maze like alleys, just as  the evening sun set (10 pm). With the setting of the sun, El Born becomes a hub where women of the night, pickpockets and such congregate. We hastily make our way back to the comfort of  touristy Las Ramblas.