There is really no reason for me to know this leafy, affluent suburb of Barcelona located about 20km north of the city, but for the fact that a dear friend lives there. Having run an errand nearby, we were wondering where to get dinner.
"There is a very small Italian place nearby", he said. "They are very good but they don't take credit cards". We called to check if they could seat us and went over.
Small was a good way to put it. In India we would call it a dhaba (a roadside restaurant typically serving truckers). Built in the garage of a house, it had 4 tables with 20 chairs and we had no idea what we would get to eat.
The owner came in and asked us if there was something we did not like. "No vongole please", the wife said. The only thing close to that was anchovy paste that he could skip in one of the dishes. We said that was fine.
And so the trip down Italy began. We quickly had six starters on the table to share. There was burrata with tomatoes, soft cheese and a tomato/olive ragout on one plate. On th other was aubergine, white fava beans and orichietti. Each item was magnificent, especially the fava and the orichietti. Vittorio left some truffle salt and some vinegar salt (interesting!) on the table just in case!
Have you ever heard of the movie Amarcord? Well we had, but not the beer! Dark and delicious, it was a great way to launch the meal!
What followed was three pasta courses - bolognese bianco, aubergine lasagna and boar sausage. I thought the lasagna was too tomato-ey, but these were all small sharing portions and we polished them off quickly!
A copa di vino and espresso rounded off the meal, and we went home satisfied!
P.S. The meal for three including drinks and tips set us back Eur 100.
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