La Boqueria and Unique Cooking Experience

Spain is renowned for its wide array tapas, combining fresh and seasonal products with Mediterranean flair. Nestled away in the picturesque Place Reial, we started today's adventure which would include a visit to the market and a hands-on cooking workshop. We began with a tour around the iconic market, La Boqueria, with not only Easter confectionery, but also the usual top-quality produce as well as the diverse blend of aromas - including Iberian ham being carved right off the hoof, the abundance of fresh seafood, not to mention the incredible array of bakery, vegetables, fresh fruit, smoothies, gelato and other mouth-watering delights!
We purchased some fabulous almond-bars - the best ever! - and will be enjoying those as we reminisce about this start to our day of new food encounters.

We returned to the beautiful kitchen, met Alfredo our instructor and began with a tasting session of a variety of tapas from all of Spain. After imbibing in a glass of sherry to wet our appetites, we tried mussels with marinara sauce topped with chopped Hazelnuts, octopus "feira" - which was octopus with a smoky paprika topping, Cantabrian anchovies on top of Manchego cheese, some traditional croquettes stuffed with a mushroom puree and a wide assortment of Iberian cold cuts. All this with a never ending glass of white wine. Ummmmm!

Then we adorned ourselves with our lime green aprons and got to work slicing onions, peeling potatoes, Shrimp, Mussels, clams, etc for our Spanish Paella, making Catalan cream with fresh cinnamon, orange zest and lots of whole milk (Beka was put in charge of this dish and did a fabulous job from start to it's amazing finish of golden brown, flame-caramelized sugar, fruit and shaved white chocolate). As we learned new skills, we had some intermittent tastings (and more wine) just to keep us going such as the Spanish Omelet - very tasty. This communal cooking experience was great fun, and gave us the chance to master the art behind the craft of exquisite Spanish cooking. Take a look .....