Best Tapas Ever!

After a full day of sightseeing with stops at the Cathedral and the Barcelona History Museum, we were determined to go to dinner a little earlier than the past two nights. So we headed out at 7:30 pm to a restaurant called Inopia. It's a modern tapas place that was opened by Alberto Adrià, the brother of Ferran Adria of El Bulli fame (where Alberto is also the pastry chef). It's been written up in all sorts of publications and was featured in an episode of "Spain On the Road Again" where Gwyneth Paltrow proclaimed it BTE (Best Tapas Ever!)

We got there about 7:45 pm and there was a short wait. You can see my name first on the board! Of course, when we went inside, I realized that there was really only one table in this place. That's the table that Mario and Gwyneth ate at. The rest of the place is jam packed with stools, shallow counters and a big bar.

When we were led in, the greeter told me there were enough places for us, but not enough chairs yet. This turned out to be a strategy they employed. People would be led in and given some counter space - then you wait to swipe chairs when others left, so there was a constant shortage, but the newcomers were the ones who suffered until they figured out the swiping tactic. You'd think they'd just order 6 more stools and be done with it!

So the girls got stools within 5 mins or so, and it was another 10 mins before Sean swiped one for me. He stood the whole meal, but that was out of choice.

We ordered a ton of stuff. The menu was largely indecipherable (download it from their website if you don't believe me!) and our waiter didn't have a huge command of English. But we muddled through. And pointed a few times.

We had the following (in no particular order):

• Patatas Bravas - fried potatoes served with aioli and a little hot sauce, these were outstanding. A specialty of the house.
• Fried Prawns - interesting preparation, they were fried in their shells, I didn't quite get the point of this dish, although the prawns were very fresh so ultimately tasty.
• White Asparagus with vinegar and mustard - this dish was good but not other-worldly. It was the most pricey dish at 13 euros.
• Chicharricos - this dish was a total mistake. We thought it was a chorizo-like sausage. It turned out to be fried pork rinds. Only dish we didn't finish.
• Olive sampler - loved the arbequinas and the aragon negras.
• Pimiento del Padron - this turned out to be small roasted peppers that were spectacular, and I don't like peppers as a rule.
• Croquettes - potato and jamon (ham) fried up, nothing could screw this up. We ate two servings but each serving was really small...really....
• Bikinis - this is the Barcelona slang for ham and cheese toasted mini sandwiches, sliced into triangles. I could eat this every day. We had to get another order for the girls. Later, we tried to get a third order, but they were sold out. SOLD OUT! Of a dish that consists of cheese, ham and white bread!
• "Chicken Dippers" - this is what our waiter called this dish. It was basically strips of white meat fried with what seemed like a coating of potato chips. It was excellent!
• Chicken Kebab - considering this dish is just chicken on a skewer, it was very good.
• La Bomba - "potato with meat inside" is how our waiter described it. We went with it. It was good - a giant meat-filled croquette.
• Anchovy olives - again our waiter practically insisted we get this - 2 little white anchovy-wrapped olives. Not something I'd normally go for, but really not bad.
• Rabbit Ribs - yes, we did get this. Blame the waiter. It was a little like frog's legs - very small. And fried. It was good but alas, the girls were squeamish about eating Thumper and Sean didn't care for it. I ate it all.
• Torta Canarejal - we saw this pictured on a poster hanging up. We thought it was a dessert like a giant cream-filled choux pastry. Insead, it was a giant torta of creamy soft cheese, served with crispy rounds of bread. Not what we expected but good nonetheless. The couple next to us loved theirs so much that the gal was practically scraping all the cheese bits off the rind.
• Pineapple served with lime shavings and molasses - I don't usually like pineapple but this dish was seriously good. The little bits of lime did it for me.

OK, I think that was it. There was a lot of food and most of it was inspired. All told, our bill was quite low, but from what I can decipher, we weren't charged for a few dishes. No wonder, I could barely keep track of everything!

I predict this will prove to be our best meal in Barcelona.