catalonia

Traditional food

Zarzuela de marisco

Among the best-known recipes of Catalunya are stews, such as La Escudella i Carn d'Olla, made of vegetables, rice, noodles and potatoes; Cocido con Judias Blancas; Butifarra (a typical regional sausage); Pilota (made of beef); bread; eggs and white beans - Faves a la catalana; Botifarra amb Monjetes; and Arroz a la Cazuela, a dish similar to the famous Paella Valenciana. Fish dishes flavored with saffron or fruit juice (such as sole in orange juice) show off the region's outstanding Mediterranean influence.

local Info

Catalonia has a very marked culture of its own, most evidently of Mediterranean tradition, and is distinguished of most other Spanish regions in several aspects, not at least by its language, Catalonian (although everybody speaks and understands Castilian Spanish perfectly). Certainly it is one of the most cosmopolitan places in Spain, thanks to its long tradition of international commerce.

What to see

Sagrada Familia Cathedral

Of course, Barcelona has an old history, and there are monuments of Romanesque, Gothic and Renaissance periods or still before, but most characteristic is what has been built during the last, say, 100 years. Barcelona has been a center of Modernist architecture and is distinguished specially by the works of genial Antoní Gaudí, who together with his great contemporaries gave new and exciting looks to it, but has remained since then at the top of modernity.