Bar Celta Pulperia, Barcelona, Spain

We mostly did a straight ahead high end one meal a day approach to our recent trip to Barcelona--it is a great city to do that in, and in the 5 days that we were there, we did not exhaust the supply of that sort of place. This is an exception to that rule, and I would argue that with the quality of the seafood that comes out of the Mediterranean and into the numerous neighborhood markets in town, you can eat very well at the more affordable end and eat very well indeed.

This is a bustling place that we had reservations for (so you can go that route), but then walked in much earlier than planned and were seated--the tables are close together and there is a long bar with seating as well, so not exactly COVID safe dining, but very much the style of places we have eaten throughout Spain and love. Bar Celta is know for it's octopus, so we had it two different preparation styles--pulpa a la plancha and pulpa a feira--I liked the former best, but they were both very good.

They were out of clams, so was unable to have my favorite dish, which is clams cooked in olive oil and garlic, but my second favorite is gambas cooked the same way. The sweetness of the seafood married with the garlic and olive oil is something so memorable it is imprinted on my senses, I can almost taste it looking at this photo weeks later. We will just have to go back.