The calçotada is a traditional meal held this time of year in catalonia. The
calçot is a form of scallion that's bigger.. and yummy. They are cooked on a fire... served with garlic, bread, salt, tomato... Kristin went to one 20 years ago here.. today was my first. We went with some people from school and some people we hadn't met before... a mad convoy of four or five cars from Barcelona, heading into the country for about 45 minutes. Here's a map.. we drove to a teeny town called Montferri in Tarragona. Zoom out one level or drag the map to the right a bit to see Barcelona.
We rented a car and will keep it for the week as the kids don't have school this coming Friday. So we'll head somewhere for a night out of Barcelona next weekend.
We were served the calçots at a big table outside (it had been raining really hard in the morning.. but was gorgeous when we got there) and then went inside an old farmhouse to another long table for servings of the more protein-based aspects of the meal ...
botifarra and lamb. There was also red wine and cava, but since i was driving (my second time in 8 months--except on my short trip to San Diego where I took Kristin's mini for a spin) I didn't have much. Perhaps I should have drunk more because my photos of the day are, I don't know, pretty boring.
Here a better writer (a teacher in Barcelona) describes a calçots from last season in 2008
http://foodvibe.blogspot.com/2008/05/hay-calots_25.html
