I didn’t even know how to spell the destination.

My schoolbooks would have called the region Catalonia, but the invitation to explore the wine and food of this region referred to it as Cataluña. A map I picked up called it Catalunya.

No matter. I was going. In any era, this northeastern corner of Spain would have had appeal, but in recent years it’s become one of the most creative parts of the culinary world—perhaps the most creative. Add to that, the continuing development of the rugged winegrowing region of the Priorat and visiting this part of the world was a must. I imagined that even in just a week I would learn much.

My expectations were exceeded by a fair measure.
      
      

A table at Barcelona’s Tragaluz was
our introduction to the cuisine of Cataluña.

Four American writers flew from New York. Another, who had taken a flight out of Chicago, met us on our arrival at the Barcelona airport. We were in the good company of our guide, Ana Ramiro, a native of Madrid who now works for the Tourist Office of Spain in Los Angeles. These days, taking any flight in coach means a bottle of heavy duty Tylenol is in my carry-on bag. But our accommodations this trip were in business class and Iberia’s interpretation of this service was better than most. While seated and waiting for takeoff at JFK, we accepted flutes of Cava, Spain’s signature sparkling wine, from our flight attendant. Diligent journalists that we were, getting into the Spanish mood while still several thousand miles away from our week’s work was not too great a sacrifice to make. As the trip evolved, it became our unofficial team beverage. We had wonderful wines twice daily with meals and also tasted at winery visits, but several of us tended to opt for Cava as the drink-of-choice at moments when we were on our own.

Before readers assume that press junkets such as these are merely frivolous fun and games, I should explain that they’re not trips to Paradise. Granted, they’re part of a wine/food/travel writer’s chosen profession—nobody forces us to do these things. However, tasting wine for a competition or tasting at a press visit to a winery requires considerable concentration to identify subtle differences in sometimes very similar tastes. And such differences must be chronicled to convey any sense of the experience for our readers.

So it is with food. Eating lengthy, multi-course meals at least twice a day is an unnatural situation. My week in Cataluña included wine tasting and food tasting that assuredly would have been more pleasant had it been spread over two, or maybe even three, weeks. But working journalists need to experience as much as possible in these circumstances.

We visited restaurants, which had (deservedly) won stars from the Guide Michelin. And we dined at others without that book’s coveted endorsement that didn’t seem to be far behind in terms of food quality or service.
      
      

Very attractive and it wasn’t even dessert.

We did not experience el Bulli, the famous three-star establishment near Barcelona. Our trip several months ago was during that half-year period that Chef/Owner Ferran Aidrà closes to experiment and further develop his cuisine. Whether Aidrà is the inspiration of the brilliant and avant garde food we experienced at several other restaurants in Cataluña or just the most noted proponent of that style, I can’t say. I do know that during our week in Spain I enjoyed several meals which were, in terms of creativity, in another league from what I’ve experienced anywhere else in the world.

We enjoyed actually participating in the preparation of traditional Cataluñan meals at two different cooking schools. For travelers who like to cook, it’s a real treat to prepare food from the region that is being visited. While we didn’t discover any techniques that seemed to be totally different from what we’d do at home, our “hands on” experience under the tutelage of gracious mentors was both fun and a deepening of the whole learning experience.

Though our hotel in Barcelona was a little away from the city center, it wasn’t a long ride to most points of interest. We saw the famous Sagrada Familia cathedral of Antonio Gaudi, but also got a much better understanding of the architect’s genius at Parc De Guel, where so much of his work is accessible to the visitor.
      

      

Parc De Guel offers opportunity to explore works of
architect/artist Antonio Gaudi in a close and personal way.

We had a very traditional meal in that city at Casa Leopoldo and we had our introduction to modern Cataluñan cuisine at Tragaluz. With more time, we might have rambled longer on Barcelona’s famous Las Ramblas, enjoying the streetside vendors and performers. We did walk through some fascinating parts of the city, discussed the differences in paella pans with shopkeepers who were kind enough to put up with our limited Spanish and had a great visit to the famous market, La Boqueria.

Too soon, it was time to go. Barcelona deserved a closer look but we had kilometers to go and people to see in our activity-packed week in Cataluña.

Editor’s note: In the weeks to come California Wine and Food will bring you a series of articles that will cover some of the highlights of this trip.