Please see an updated version on this post from our 2nd trip to Barcelona: Kosher Food in Barcelona, Spain Part 2.

I recently traveled to Barcelona, Spain, for a conference and took my husband along as my translator. I speak zero Spanish and he speaks at least enough to get us by … don’t even get me started on the number of times he got us to where we needed to go or saved us from eating some treif we shouldn’t be eating thanks to his “just enough” knowledge of the Spanish language : )

We weren’t always fortunate enough to eat at Kosher restaurants while we were in Barcelona so the few nights we did make it to a Kosher place, I was thrilled to kick the plain salad to the curb and enjoy a hearty, meat dish like the one pictured above.  Those are spicy meatballs with Mejadara (rice with lentils and spices) from Delicias Kosher. We also enjoyed hummus with pitas and some potato tapas that were too spicy for me to eat but everyone else loved them. And oh the wine in Spain was so amazing … and cheap! I honestly could have just lived on wine while I was there … but thanks to a few great Kosher restaurants, I didn’t have to.

Our last night in Barcelona, we made our way to Shalom Kosher Restaurant for several delicious dishes. For the main course, I had shawarma (pictured above) and Neil had a beef kabob (pictured below). Both were awesome … Neil’s was the best so I’d probably get that one if/when I go back … but my favorite thing was an appetizer they put on the table before dinner was served.

At first, I thought it was a bowl of French Fries but when I bit into the yummy morsel, I discovered it was fried pita – a Southern Treif-loving girl’s dream – proving that anything tastes good when it’s fried. We asked our waiter about it, and he explained that they sliced up pita into strips and deep fried it to get the crunchy French-fry like quality. They gave us small bowls of Tahini and some other very spicy dipping sauces and we were set. Oh, and of course we also had some yummy Spanish wine.

The funniest part of the evening came when Neil asked our waiter if they took American Express (but he called it Expresso because he was trying to sound all Spanish and stuff) and the waiter thought we wanted an espresso, Americano Style.

Last but definitely not least, we rushed to the Mercat de La Boqueria one afternoon to a vegan falafel place that Neil had discovered during his daily adventures. The food stand closed at around 4 and I didn’t want to miss out on these falafels. The Falafel Vegan was worth the 2 metro trains and long walk/run we had to take to get there from our hotel. I can’t believe I forgot to take a picture of this yummy falafel (see picture below of me waiting for my Falafel to be prepared), but you’ll have to take my word for it … and visit the place the next time you’re in Barcelona. Once you are done eating, you can walk through the many vendors’ stands in the Boqueria and marvel at the interesting foods for sale. Lots of treif to admire in this market!

Have you been to Barcelona? What were your experiences with food, Kosher or otherwise?

Happy Kosher Treif Cooking, Travels and New Year!