Barcelona: La Boqueria

A stroll down La Rambla, you will find the entrance to The Mercat de Sant Josep de la Boqueria or La Boqueria, a large food market in Barcelona, Spain. The market has a very diverse selection of goods...

tons of fruits and juice to buy! different kinds of fruits were mixed w/ coconut juice for a very creamy taste:

fresh fruits of all kind cut up and put in containers...

chocolates...

different kinds of eggs...

creamy gelato...

meat...

more fruit!

caramel and candies...

dry fruits and nuts...

Korean restaurant (the only Asian store there)

candied fruits..,

fried fish balls (we tried them and I didn't it, Andy said it was okay...)

fried seafood combination (it was okay...)

Restaurants towards the back of the markets were crowded but we finally found seats at Bar Boqueria.

it was kinda pricey...

We had the seafood combination for two. The huge dish of seafood includes calamari, shrimp, mussels, fish, and razor clams. The seafood was fresh and cooked right, nothing was under or over cooked. It was made with lots of herbs and some lemon juice. sooo much seafood, soooo delicious, sooo worth it!

picture with our food before we devour it!!

Our last day in Barcelona, we decided to dropped by the market for our last fruit smoothie runs. We wanted to try more flavors so we got 5 or 6 drinks at a time (bad idea...). We spent too much time in the market and shopping that we missed our plane to Rome! I blame it partially on the the trains but anyway...

FYI: if you want to use the bathroom in the market you have to save your receipts to show the bathroom lady. If you don't you have to pay .50euros

Taste of Belgium #7: My Favorites!

#1: Belgian Waffles and Frituurs

#2: Sausage Roll from Panos!
Panos is a chain store that sells sweet and savory bake goods. You can find this store everywhere in Belgium (it's like a Starbucks, you can find one on every corner). It's a quick snack which is cheap and taste so good!

They make different types of rolls like turkey, chicken and sausage.

#3: Belgian donuts:
I must mention these delicious Belgian pastry and donuts. They were SOOOOOOO good! We had these for breakfast. The chocolate one is like our boston cream donut but the only difference is that it's flaky outside. SO DELICIOUS!!!! The other pastries were cinnamon, custard filled and raisin.

#4: Blood Sausage by Sita's MomStesi planned something special for us to try but won't tell us what Sita's mom was going to make for us. They said Belgian people love it but some people hate it. Sita said she didn't like it as a child but was going to try it again when we do. It turns out to be blood sausage! I've tried it before but hated it. The ones i tried was very hard and the taste was really bad but this time it was soo good! You can eat it with apple sauce and some people eat it with brown sugar. I actually really like it w/ apple sauce.

Thank you so much for cooking this for us Sita's mom *hugz* Dank je wel!!!

Taste of Belgium #2: Frituurs

Fri-what? ehh?? Frituurs is a traditional fast food shop that often serves fried and grilled dishes such as frites, meatballs, croquettes, fried chicken, brochette and many other foods. Basically, they deep fried everything! There are a large selection of sauces including ketchup, mayo, mustard, curry and many different others.

It's our first time eating at a frituurs. We went to Den Halt a near by shop from the Stesi. They often come here so we know it must be good stuff...

We walked in and there was a counter w/ tons of stuff you can deep fry. Most of the stuff is on a stick...

lots of sauce:

The guy working behind the counter was curious where we were from because I kept taking pictures. We found out we were the first Americans to visit them! We're so honored =D

Here's the menu on the wall:

Traditionally the frites were served in sheets of paper sometimes rolled up in an upside down cone.

mayo and ketchup (curry favor)

frites w/ curry

i can't really identify these but they were so good!!!

wow so much food!!! delicious!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Den Halt
Bredestraat 1
2620 Hemiksem, Belgium
03 887 51 80

Healthy Recipe Contest: Applications due May 15, 2010

Like to cook? The Charles B. Wang Community Health Center Health Education Department invites you to participate in its Healthy Recipe Contest. All adults aged 18 and older are invited to submit a healthy recipe for the chance to win a prize. Selected recipes will be published in a cookbook. After the first round of recipe selection, ten finalists will be asked to prepare their dishes in a live cooking contest. Finalists will receive the following cash prizes of up to $200. All participants will receive a free copy of the cookbook comprised of selected recipes. All submissions must include the completed application and recipe form. Applications are available online at http://www.cbwchc.org/ and at the following addresses:

-268 Canal Street, 1st floor, New York, NY 10013

-125 Walker Street, 2nd floor, New York, NY 10013

-136-26 37th Avenue, 2nd and 4th floors, Flushing, NY 11354

-Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, 62 Mott Street, 2nd floor, New York, NY 10013

After the first round of recipe selection, ten finalists will be asked to prepare their dishes in a live cooking contest. Ten finalists will be informed by June 15th, 2010 by mail and phone. The live cooking contest will take place on July 11th, 2010 at the Whole Foods Market Bowery Culinary Center (95 E Houston St, New York, NY). Dishes will be judged by the following criteria: presentation, aroma and taste.

Call the Health Education Department at (212) 966-0461 if you would like the application mailed or faxed to you or have any questions about the contest. Applications are due on May 15, 2010.

If you have any questions you can post it in the comment box and I'll get back to you!

The Omnivore's Hundred...

Have you tried..??
I thought this was fun and interesting. Below is a list of 100 things/foods from http://www.verygoodtaste.co.uk/ that a "good omnivore" should try at least once in their life. The list includes fine food, strange food, everyday food and some pretty bad food. This is how it works:

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.

2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.

3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.

4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at http://www.verygoodtaste.co.uk/ linking to your results or you can post your result on my comments!

My Omnivore’s Hundred:
1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile (i drank crocodile meat soup when I was little because it was suppose to be good for asthma and it's pretty good!)
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart (who lives in NY haven't tried hotdog from a cart?!)
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle <---wanna try
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras (Bermuda cruise '08)
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche (I love any dulce de leche deserts!)
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi (I'm not sure if I had the salted Lassi but I had the sweet one)
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O (oh the fun times!)
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects <---wanna try
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu <---wanna try
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads (I love Argentinean grill but not the sweetbreads =X)
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian (I <3> durian!)
66. Frogs’ legs (my grandma tricked me and said it was chicken leg and I believed her!
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake (I <3> Coney Island!)
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant <---must try!
85. Kobe beef (Vday dinner at Morimoto)
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam (Spam with ramen noodle, yum!)
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor<---wanna try
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee (Jamaica trip '06)
100. Snake

Not bad....I got 43/100!! I'm not a picky eater and I'll probably try ALMOST anything but if it smells bad or not visually appealing then forget about it. So what food have you tried?