Barcelona // Brunch in Barcelona

My summer holiday this year was a little trip through Spain and the Basque Country with M. We started in Valencia, flew to Mallorca, then to Barcelona and then zipped to Bilbao and San Sebastian. I found all of those places very beautiful for different reasons but when asked which place was my favourite, I find myself saying "Barcelona" without even taking a moment to think about it.

Brunch in Barcelona may perhaps initially strike you as an unlikely concept but trust me, it was one that featured very highly on my list of things I love about Barcelona.

Top three spots for brunch in Barcelona //

1  ::  Federal

2  ::  Caravelle

3  ::  Taranna

What I realised very quickly about Barcelona is that it is a very cool city. The people dress well, they have vending machines which sell headphones and the dogs are just top-rate. How fitting then that there are hip places for brunch - a scene which has taken over London like Cosmo takes over my keyboard every time I begin to blog (he was here a second ago) but given its frequency nowadays it is a bit laborious finding somewhere that is actually EXCELLENT as opposed to "meh, that filled me up I suppose".

Within a 15 minute radius of one another, a rather marvellous little walk nearby the apartment we were staying in will provide you with my top three options in Barcelona. I could have quite happily eaten in all three every day for the rest of my life if need be - oh, what torture - which is quite handy as they also do lunch/dinner too.

Which of these looks yummiest to you? Where is your favourite place for brunch where you live?

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This post is dedicated to Sally from The Cafe Cat who is a fountain of exciting knowledge and without whom finding somewhere to stay in Barcelona would have been a great deal more stressful. 

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Pies and rain

Weird comfort :: After being in an extra busy museum, walking in the rain for a couple of hours because you're determined to have the day you set out to have and eventually reaching somewhere for lunch - that lunch being a HOT pie with MASH and mushy PEAS at Pieminister - squeezing water out of hair, shaking umbrellas and not wanting to leave the indoors.

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Versailles // Marché Notre Dame

I was very lucky to be staying with A in southern Paris, only a half an hour bus ride from the beautiful town of Versailles. With such beautiful weather forecast, we spent our Sunday exploring the gardens of the Palace of Versailles in the glorious sunshine. Of course, any sunny day must be accompanied by a picnic so when we hopped off the bus, we followed a man carrying a wicker basket to the Marché Notre Dame. Here we let smells and potential photographs guide us, and ended up with a neat little (read BIG) lunch for the two of us.

The place was bustling with families, couples, older people with their dogs, food enthusiasts, cheese experts and friends catching up (like us!). It is predominantly a food market, although as you can see in the last photo, there were flowers aplenty too.

On a Sunday, the market is open until 2pm and although we arrived about an hour before this, many stalls were already packing up and I think we bought the last punnet of strawberries in the entire square, so head there earlier rather than later.

Address: Halles de Versailles, 78000 Versailles

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Paris // Amorino ice cream

After delicious falafel and feeling so full we had to ask ourselves whether dessert was still on the cards (ridiculous, I know), a trip to the best ice cream place I have found outside of Italy was in order. Step in, Amorino. M and I discovered this gem late one evening in Soho after I had been to some comedy by myself (laughing alone is not as fun as laughing with another when everyone else is laughing with another) and M had had a doubly long train journey (many thanks rail companies) to join me for Pizza Pilgrims (quite nice, better than Fire and Stone), and we decided to Google "dessert in London" and go to the nearest place it threw at us. By a wonderful stroke of luck, that place was Amorino - home of the beautiful, beautiful gelato. So of course A and I had to go in Paris too. 

There are more flavours than you could possibly contemplate at once but you are able to ask for as many as you like and the staff will arrange as much as they can in the cone/cup you choose. In the shape of a rose as well!

Ignore where my cat scratched me!

I chose one of the many chocolate varieties, tiramisu and mango sorbet. I hadn't expected the mango to complement the chocolate and coffee that well, but it was an excellent match and I'm thrilled with my discovery! 

There are a few in London now, THANK GOODNESS, and others scattered across the globe, including 56 in France so off you go! (Seriously, why are you still reading this? Go!)

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Paris // L'as du Fallafel

Wandering around Parisian streets with a bundle of THIS in my hand and learning from A about the Jewish quarter was quite possibly my favourite part of the trip. The deliciousness you see above was a L'as du Fallafel creation, dubbed by the New York Times as "the falafel destination in Europe". 

I like chickpeas just as much as everyone else, but I'd never really tried falafel before and remembered it. That makes it sound like I've only ever eaten it on hazily-recollected nights, but what I mean is that if I've ever eaten if before, I can't remember. It just can't have been that good. However, served out of a window and subject to creative adjustments, the falafel here is not only memorable, but also simply delicious.

Mine featured shawarma kebab whereas A opted for the vegetarian option. They were bloomin' marvellous and I would eat one every day if I could!

Obviously walking around wearing the lightest coloured clothing was the perfect equation for making a salsa and aubergine related mess, so we headed to some gardens a few streets away to sit in the sunshine and attempt to eat these gracefully. By the time we perched ourselves by a chess table (why on earth do we not have these in London?!) I had devoured most of mine anyway (completely stain free I might add) and we pondered whether we had room for dessert (answer: always.)

Marks out of ten = 9. A point being docked only for having more pieces of aubergine than falafel itself. 

The Jewish Quarter is, by the way, awesome. 

Now, what I would like to know is (a) falafel or hummus? and (b) do I get a prize for the lack of spillage?

Address: 32-34 Rue des Rosiers, 75004 Paris

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Challenge Eight of the 2014 Blogger Challenge is an outfit post. I think sharing this outfit (H&M, Zara, New Look, Longchamp combination) should suffice! 

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Tales of a Naughty Kitten #2 :: family breakfast with JING tea

Bonjour, good day and hello to you all. You may recognise me from many a post, but if introductions are necessary, I am Cosmo - AKA the naughtiest kit in the world. Absolute pleasure to meet you. My mother (well, one of them...I have three) is a big fan of tea as I'm sure you already know. But you see this bag here? That's mine. 

Yes, that's right ladies and gents, although Bee was sent some Earl Grey and Peppermint tea bags from the kind people at JING, I feel like there was a little error in that Peppermint is MY flavour. Sure, Bee might act as though she is mint tea's number one fan, but take a look at my face - how could I lick my lips with such glee if I was not mesmerised more than anyone else by the smell alone?

I recognise that my Grandmother was being treated on this particular morning, and that I wasn't meant to take a bite out of the brioche before any of my family got to it, nor was I really supposed to knock the tea bags out of Mum's hand before any could reach the tea pot, but what can I say? I truly am a naughty kitten.

I should probably add that nobody was protecting the said mint tea bags and that their silky cases were really too much for a kitten of such good taste to ignore. My family all seemed to be too busy preparing other bits and pieces with hot machines. 

I overheard my Mums discussing a new obsession of theirs - Lotus biscuit spread, Nutella and waffles. I'll stick to my mint tea and brioche thanks, but they seem to be pretty keen and it's probably best that you try it for yourselves. 

Oh and before you think I'm toooooooo naughty, let me reassure you that I saved my family the Earl Grey. Grandfather used the hot machine which makes terrifying noises that make me cower under tables to make an excellent pot and my family drank it, each from an Iranian estekan. (Yup, I'm bilingual)

Anyhow, I'm off to have my seventeenth nap of the afternoon. Until next time!

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Iranian Kebabs and Patisserie Valerie Cake

No words needed.

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Blacks Burgers

This post is wayyyy overdue and I have probably eaten about 57 burgers since, BUT a couple of months back, M and I had some celebrating to do. It had finally been a good day at the hospital after countless disappointments in the weeks before so when we got off the train home from London, we followed our noses to the enticing smell that was Blacks Burgers.

Naughty handfuls of yum.

I must say our burger choices were probably the best we could have made. I had cheese and bacon because that is the ultimate combination and both those ingredients make anything better. Especially days when you've been using an old school calculator for an entire afternoon and have numbers-induced fury. M had a chorizo combination.

Chorizo is a superior sort of meat, isn't it? I feel like if it had a facial expression it'd be a sort of smug one with gleaming eyes and thoughts of how it has perfected the succulent/chewy balance.

Anyway, the flavours worked but I wasn't entirely persuaded by the burgers themselves.

I haven't had a reallllyyyyyy good burger in such a long time. Some friends and I tried Burgers and Cocktails (a Giraffe restaurant spin-off, I believe) which is a short walk from Bond Street station, and they were okkkkk (cheese and bacon again so yes we're doing a like for like comparison) and we all know how disastrous my Meat Liquor venture was, so I'm itching to try a Patty & Bun creation. Does anybody know what the best time of day to go is so that you don't have to queue much/at all?

But yes, back to Blacks. The chips were nice, the onion rings could have been crispier but the pièce de résistance was the chocolate milkshake. Holy moley, it was deeeelicious and beautifully presented as you can see.

So yes, the staff are kind and helpful, the choice of burgers is pretty extensive and I at least recommend you pop in for a catch up with friends over milkshakes. They also do some good lunchtime and student deals if that suits. 

Where do you recommend for an excellent burger? And more importantly, when shall we go and try them out?

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