The worst meal that I have ever had (if you exclude eating food that was off or badly cooked), came quite recently. When I talk about the worst meal, I mean the whole dining experience from arrival at the restaurant to leaving and not just the food itself – after all, a very enjoyable dinner could be spoilt by loutish behaviour on an adjacent table. Our next-door neighbour is an agriturismo. This is an Italian word which means a combination of guest house, restaurant and working farm (although that might just mean it has a lot of olive trees). We were being taken to lunch by our builder who had also been working for the agriturismo – they had been building a small railway for young children to ride on and he asked us to dine with him. Although we are neighbours, I am disabled an Beverley Restaurants d cannot walk very far and, since our house is about 700 metres from the agriturismo, we went by car. The drive to the restaurant was blocked with rubbish and a decrepit gate which our builder cleared away for us. When we arrived at the restaurant itself, there was nowhere to park despite there only being one other car present. We went inside and sat down at the table – the room was deserted; there were no other diners. A few minutes later, our host arrived with a plate of antipasta – a mixture of cold, oily toast, raw ham, bits of truffle, hard full-fat cheese etc. There wasn’t much and it wasn’t very nice but worse was yet to come. The manager just sat about – not keeping out of the way nor acting as ‘mein host’ which, under the circumstances, would have been more appropriate.
Eating well in Barcelona
The small history of bread could well be a metaphor for social changes occurred in Spain over the last years. When my family settled down in Barcelona, in 1977, we were surprised to see how bad the bread in this city was. The post-Franco regime bakeries were just bread vending machines, tasteless and without any variety. The bread was rather dry, gummy, with a hard crust and bland crumb and eating well in Barcelona. In the eighties, change arrived with the industrial bread, that came frozen and later baked on site. In the nineties, a partially home-made bread set apart some brands such as Bopan and Paul from the rest; it has great flavour, lots of variety in its ingredients, and the outlets have a pleasant and cosy design. Over the last years, the pioneers in the sector are the signature bakeries rather than brand bakeries, set up and manag restaurants in beverley ed by great professionals, who produce a totally home-made bread, that is innovative, varied and, by all means, very tasteful. Some of the best shops are established in the in Barcelona, a district that reinvents itself constantly: Turris (www.turris.es) traditionally made quality bread); Crusto (www.crusto.es) an innovative selection); Hansel (Provenza 273; delicatessen with breakfast sandwiches). There are also excellent bakeries in other areas in the city, like Gracia (Barcelona Reykjavik (www.barcelonareykjavik.com) or Sarria (Classic Line, Benet Mateu 62). Staying at an apartment allows you to enjoy the small pleasures in the city, like a good bakery in the neighbourhood. For this reason, Aspasios offers its clients information on the best shops and businesses in each district, be it bakeries, restaurants, cocktail bars or hairdressers.