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Track down a calçotada for a true taste of traditional Catalan dining<br />
TUCKING INTO BURNT onions<br />
might not sound like the most<br />
appetising lunch, but it’s worth<br />
catching the end of the calçot<br />
season this month to experience<br />
a true culinary ritual. The sweet,<br />
leek-like onions are blackened<br />
on a barbecue or open fi re and<br />
served throughout winter across<br />
Catalonia, creating strong feelings<br />
(and plenty of messy faces)<br />
wherever they’re eaten.<br />
But this is no ordinary meal.<br />
The consumption of calçots is<br />
called a calçotada, and is usually a<br />
lunchtime aff air. The feast begins<br />
with wine, bread and around<br />
20 calçots per person, charred,<br />
tender and traditionally served<br />
steaming on a clay roofi ng tile.<br />
Twenty may seem like a lot<br />
Onion Eaters<br />
(especially given that calçots are<br />
usually eaten as a starter), but<br />
Pedro Fuentes Castillo, owner of<br />
Restaurant L’Antic Forn (28 Calle<br />
Pintor Fortuny, tel: +34 (0)93<br />
412 0286) says that he’s used to<br />
serving up many more than that.<br />
Fuentes Castillo also says that<br />
diners should stand up to eat,<br />
dipping their calçots in creamy<br />
romesco sauce before tilting their<br />
heads back and lowering the lot into<br />
their mouths. It’s great fun but not<br />
the most practical way to eat an<br />
onion, and most restaurants furnish<br />
diners with bibs and plastic gloves<br />
to protect them from the worst<br />
of the mess.<br />
Once the tile has been cleared,<br />
the main course begins. Barbecued<br />
meats such as lamb, rabbit and<br />
butifarra sausages are brought<br />
to the table, along with grilled<br />
vegetables and white beans. When<br />
diners begin loosening their belts<br />
THE BUZZ | TASTE BUDS<br />
a notch, waiters know it’s time to<br />
bring out the cava, desserts and<br />
coff ee. All of this feasting will set<br />
you back about €30 per person,<br />
making a calçotada a thoroughly<br />
reasonable indulgence.<br />
You’ll fi nd calçots served in<br />
restaurants all over Barcelona<br />
and the surrounding countryside,<br />
but the best place to eat them<br />
is Valls, a town just over an hour’s<br />
drive from Barcelona. Valls is the<br />
birthplace of the calçot tradition,<br />
and a calçot festival is held here<br />
every January, complete with a<br />
calçot-eating contest. Consuming<br />
calçots is more than a meal – it’s an<br />
event, a traditional way to celebrate<br />
winter, family, friends and, of<br />
course, those long, green onions.<br />
Regina Winkle-Bryan<br />
MARCH 11 | TRAVELLER | 33<br />
PHOTO © TIM WHITE
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