The most beautiful market in the world

THE next day, we visited one of the world's most beautiful and bountiful food markets, La Boqueria where one has the sensorially exhilarating experience of walking in between rows and rows of shrine-like displays of purple-tipped artichokes, slender wild asparagus, fuzzy baby zucchinis, plump deep red strawberries, cherries, tomatoes and raspberries; fruits, vegetables and spices of every saturated colour.

Equally tantalising were the meat counters dangling with legs of cured ham and sausages of every variety and ice beds of the freshest, largest octopuses, clams, mussels, langoustines, crabs, salted cod, tuna and just about every edible marine species in the Mediterranean and Atlantic waters. So impressive is this market that even Ferran Adria shops here.

We decided that we couldn't leave this place without sampling some of its freshest produce so we trailed an aromatic scent to an open kitchen in the middle of the market where seafood is being grilled in olive oil.

We hurried to stake a perch at this counter and within minutes every seat was filled. It was barely noon and a small but growing crowd was already gathering behind us waiting for seats.

It was with herculean restraint that we stopped ourselves from ordering everything on display at the counter. For the next hour, I ate as if it was my last meal on earth, relishing the satisfying crispness of the season's first asparagus, chewing soulfully into the paprika-dusted poached octopus, savouring every bite of the langoustines that tasted as sweet as lobsters and finally washing it all down with a chilled glass of sparkling cava (Spanish version of the champagne). Few things in life are more perfect than this.

Crazy egg

Our daily morning ritual was to pop into the breakfast bar next to our apartment block. At Bar-Bero, everyone orders paper-thin slices of jamn serrano (dry cured mountain ham) to go with freshly baked bread and coffee or orange juice. Jamn serrano is cured for 12 to 18 months and this extended period of curing imparts on the ham a much deeper flavor and firmer texture than its closest relative, the Italian prosciutto de parma. I was hooked on it at first bite.

On this particular morning, I decided to try something different. Our friend got me a huevo loco (literally crazy egg!) which is a toasted sandwich of cheese and sunny-side up with a circle cut in the centre of the top slice.

I figured that this is a clever way of allowing the yoke to remain runny and raw while the rest of the egg is neatly sandwiched between the toasts and it is certainly a novel way of presenting the good old egg and cheese sandwich.

Where kings and surrealists dine

On my last day in Barcelona, we decided to head out of the capital to Figueres, home of Salvador Dal, about two hours away. Figueres is an undistinguished town with two very distinguished attractions: Dal's outlandish theatre-museam and the Hotel Duran Restaurant.

The journey into one of the most bizarre (and disturbed) imaginations of the 20th century begins before you even enter the museum. One can't help but puzzle over the pink exterior walls studded with what look like croissants and crowned with giant eggs.

The absurdity continues inside with paintings of nightmarish images dragged up from the dungeon of Dal's Freud-fed imagination, countless painting and sketches of Gala, his wife and object of obsession (the story goes that Dal took Gala for a last drive around their estate home - after she died), elaborate coin-operated theatrical contraptions, a baffling portrait of Abraham Lincoln embedded within a portrait of Gala that becomes visible through a coin-operated viewfinder, and a living room whose furniture make up a portrait of Mae West: sofa for her lips, fireplaces for her nostrils and abstract paintings for her eyes.

I left the museum feeling like I had just escaped from a grotesque and feverish dream and I was pining for some down-to-earth comfort food for lunch.

The restaurant at Hotel Duran, just a few minutes walk from the museum, is a favourite of Dal and a famous landmark in Figueres that has been around since 1855. We were greeted by exuberant waiters who led us into a regal looking dining room that hosted the King of Spain himself as the photographs on the wall testify.

We ordered traditional Catalan favourites like seafood broth, shellfish and lobster croquettes, suquet (tomato stew of fish and seafood) and duck with pears. Except for simple garnishings, our dishes came with typical unadorned, uncomplicated presentation allowing the luminous quality of the ingredients to speak for themselves. The seafood soup was the best I have ever had and the suquet spiced with wine and saffron is particularly heart-warming especially after Dal.

My Barcelona culinary highlight had to be the exquisite seafood. Unrivalled in freshness, it is no wonder that Spaniards consume a hundred pounds of seafood per year per person, nearly double the European average! 1 A week in Barcelona has me absolutely besotted with the rigorous simplicity, purity and warmth of its food culture - natural goodness which are sadly lacking in our typical modern diet of processed, MSG-ed food - and put me under the spell of a country united in its passion for food. Estupendo!

1 'The Global Fish Crisis', National Geographic, April 2007. From the same article, I later learned that such insatiable appetites have led to the gutting of the Atlantic and Mediterranean waters of many commercial species and pushed fishing fleets to the Southern Hemisphere where they are wiping out fish stocks and depriving subsistence fishermen in West Africa of their main source of protein.

Note : I have deliberately left out the mention of prices of food or admission tickets because as The Little Prince of the enchanting fable by the same name would say, "Grown-ups love figures.But certainly, for us who understand life, figures are a matter of indifference." As a guide, cost of food can range from 25 at casual tapas bars like Bar Jai-ca to 60 at fancier places like the Hotel Duran Restaurant for two big-eating people inclusive of drinks and 7% sales tax. The portions are typically very hearty.

Photo credit: Ken Yeong

Food galore in Spain Pt 1

SHIRENE CHEN is a restless pilgrim taking a rest from the corporate world to read, write and live.