Friday night I made Coconut Lime Mussels from this recipe at epicurious.com, turned out pretty well, my mussel-loving friend said they were amazing (she took the photo). I'm still on the road to get convinced to shellfish.
We went to Barcelona for the Primavera Sound Festival and were lucky enough to team up with people who went there many times before and knew exactly what to do when it came to dining. They took us to the most amazing place at Barceloneta, visited mostly by the locals. To get in there, you have to get in a queue at least half an hour before the opening.
The first amazing thing we got to know there (which stuck with us until the end of the trip and well beyond) was Turbio. This amazing white wine is unlike any wine I've tried before - it's enriched with yeast. Surprising, refreshing and truly delicious, sold in beautifully simple bottles with a thumb-sized label, available from 1,19 EUR in some supermarkets. We brought 10 bottles back to Poland.
Then came the food. I may have already mentioned I'm not really a fan of seafood which is, of course, a specialty of Barcelona, so I was really happy to see that the orgy started with deep fried vegetables - eggplants, sweet peppers and home-made french fries (as seen in the middle of the table). All of it amazing, but nothing comparing to the seafood part.
My mother always explained to me, that seafood tastes completely different when it's really fresh and served just a few hundred meters from where it was caught. As much as I hate to admit it - she was right.
We ordered some sick amount of food, including calamari, sardines and prawns, but my top 2 were chipirones (baby squid, top of the plate) and llangueta - the tiniest fish (just compare their size to the fork), both deep fried.
Everything was amazingly fresh and you had to eat it as soon as it hit the table - while it was still sizzling, crispy and hot. As soon as I got stuffed beyond my limits and had to wait a while to eat more, my satisfaction fell down a few levels - it all wasn't so great as it cooled down. So the way to go there is to take some friends and order really small amounts of everything, but frequently. They don't mind - everything is done extremely fast, like within two minutes from the time you'd placed your order.
If you ever go to Barcelona don't miss this place. It would be a sin.
I guess I finally found a reason to have a social life - cooking for more people is quite fun. It's also a good excuse to make things that serve more than two and don't reheat well. Mussels - one of such dishes.
I don't actually eat seafood at all. Apart that one time I made deep fried mussels for someone. But these came out pretty well, I ate a few and did not want to throw up or even follow it with something to kill the taste. They're good for a dinner party, because you can prep everything in advance and just throw everything in a pan when the time comes.
Ingredients:
Chop everything finely (except for the butter, wine and mussels, of course). Start with melting the butter and cooking the challots and celery until translucent. Add the garlic and chili, cook for a moment and add the mussels, parsley and wine, season. Cook under cover for a few minutes, shaking from time to time, so that everything mixes well. If the pot isn't large enough, use a second one - transferring the mussels back and forth once should do the trick. Take the lid off, cook for a few more minutes, discard the mussels that didn't open, serve with fresh baguette, make people happy.
