Exploring Barcelona: A food tour of churros and La Boqueria market

I left the hotel this morning determined to come here and have this dish and I was not disappointed. Food is my true passion. I'm Gemma Stafford, a professional chef and host of Bigger Bolder Baking. So that means great food is a huge part of my everyday life. You've seen me boldly bake over-the-top recipes, now travel with me on my culinary adventures around the world. In this episode of Gemma Eats, I'm in Barcelona, Spain, bathing in churros and chocolate. Exploring the most amazing food market and eating my new favorite breakfast dish. And I think I found the original Cronut. All right now, on Gemma Eats. In Spain they put so much care and effort into every meal, including breakfast. I'm here in Barcelona and I'm really excited to try some traditional churros and really thick hot chocolate. Where churros originated from is still unclear, but I trust that the Spanish know a thing or two about making them. Located off the busy street of the famous La Rambla, this is Granja Viader, a family business that was started almost 150 years ago. Five generations later, they still use the milk and eggs from the family farm to make some of their amazing treats, including their churros. Look at that. This is one way to start your day off. Churros are really simple pastry, all they are are choux pastry which is what you'd make for fish rolls with. They deep fry them until they're lovely golden brown, they toss them in a little bit of sugar and then you eat them while they're nice and warm. They're crunchy, they're not too sweet. Oh my gosh this hot chocolate is absolutely amazing. I could bathe in this. For your hot chocolate you have to make sure it is really thick just like this one so it will coat your churro. And the great thing about it is it's not overly sweet so they really balance each other out really well. So I've said this before, but some of the best churros I've ever had have actually been in Napa, in Northern California. But I have to admit, being here in Barcelona and having this traditional dish here, this might be the top of my list. After this sweet breakfast I couldn't help but wander the streets of Barcelona. These back streets are filled with the hustle and bustle of everyday life. I was on my way to a legendary place that I was so excited to experience. La Boqueria is a popular tourist destination and according to some locals it's not exactly where they would go on a daily basis but I found it vibrant and filled with so many culinary possibilities. I'm here outside the Boqueria market in Barcelona, one of the most famous food markets. I already know what I want to eat inside, so let's go. This is really amazing. There's a lot of fresh fruit vendors, but they do all of these juices along with like fresh fruit cups and things like that. Absolutely incredible. And they're only like two euros. You can see it's pretty much every fruit you can imagine. Fruit is so pretty. The cherries are in season so they're everywhere right now, and then all the fresh berries, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, absolutely gorgeous. There's a really good mix in this market of fresh produce and restaurants, but for sure you know that everything is coming locally sourced. After my sweet breakfast, I was on the hunt for something a little bit more on the savory side, like jamón, or Spain's famous cured ham. The curing process can take up to a year, but sometimes stretches over many years to to give the meat incredible flavor. My choice today is more of a sampler, which I ended up referring to as ham cones. So you'll see here in Barcelona that a lot of the butchers and the delis, they sell little cones like this full of jamón and cheese, a little bit of breadstick, something like that. I think it's absolutely genius and it's only a couple of dollars. This jamón is really soft, look at that, and how tender it is, but more importantly how thin it is. I could eat ham cones all day long. This is kind of a Spanish version of fast food which I am all about. If there was more fast food like this in the world I think we'd be doing okay. Definitely be very happy. Cuáles el que se llama más Check out all of these gorgeous Spanish olives. You can actually smell in the air where we are right now because you have that lovely saltiness that olives have. Yum. I definitely need to eat more olives while I'm here. This is how you know a place is good because there's a whole pile of like little grannies and locals hanging around. All right. When I got anchovies the other day I thought I was getting what she just told me now are boquerones but I thought they were like sardines but they're a really cheap little fish you get here as a tapa. It's white fish, it's absolutely delicious and I have to get some more while I'm here. And given my passion for seafood I had to make my way to that section. Oh look, it's over here. I haven't seen these in a very, very long time. These are called periwinkles. We actually used to fish these in Ireland. As kids, we used to go down to the beach and get them off rocks and then bring them up to our neighbor's house. And she would put them in a big pot of boiling water and cook them. And then you would get a little like pin and you would like fish out the periwinkle. Oh, they were so good. That's amazing. I can't believe I saw those. Look at the mussels. You have mussels, prawns. Squid, which is just huge here and in abundance. I have to admit, I actually think I've had some of the best seafood in my life here in Barcelona the past few days. It's been absolutely incredible. This is what we're going to be having for breakfast, I'm going to find myself some squid. And then I found my dream destination, El Quim. Executive chef Quim Marques and his team bring creativity and their passion for beautiful, well-prepared food to anyone who has the great fortune to try it. Did you see the shrimp plush you got? Did you see the shrimp plush you got? I better get something else. Yeah, I don't think so. Squid and eggs, or foie gras, eggs, and mushrooms. Thank you. Oh, it looks really good. Oh my god. So when coming to La Boqueria, I looked online, and this was one of the most popular spots. They do eggs like nobody's business. I've decided I'm going to get eggs with squid. They look amazing and also the squid comes straight from the water out there so why not get what is local and fresh and amazing. Everybody's dish looks really good. Gracias, thank you. Oh yeah baby. Some fresh squid just sautéed off over two fried eggs and here they fry their eggs in olive oil so they kind of almost deep fry their eggs you can see they're nice and kind of bubbly and crispy around the sides and they're just barely cooked you see that oh they're just perfectly cooked. Man, this is my kind of heaven, this is why I love Spain, it is amazing food done simply. You don't have to do a whole lot to squid to make it taste good, and very same with eggs. Squid tastes like the sea, it doesn't taste like fish, it's not chewy, it's soft and tastes like the sea. Absolutely gorgeous. What would you say? To get the true impact of the kitchen, just check out this monitor that shows you all of the kitchen stations. In a very tight space, these guys do a lot to create a variety of amazing dishes. Delicious. I don't think I've ever actually had anything like this squid before. Look how tiny it is. You're going to have to trust me, but it is just barely sauteed. It's really soft. This is how you should enjoy a squid. If you were to taste this dish with your eyes closed, you would never guess that it was squid. The squid in Barcelona is so different to squid I've had all over the world. They know how to cook it just right and best of all, it tastes like sea air. It's absolutely amazing, kind of sweet, it's a little bit creamy. Their produce is served with eggs, just simple fried eggs, I mean, come on. I left the hotel this morning. I was determined to come here and have this dish and I was not disappointed. So after this amazing dish, I decided to continue my breakfast theme with another something sweet. So Barcelona has pretty much done me in, I'm absolutely stuffed, but I saved room for one more thing. A churro. Now this is a traditional Catalonia pastry. Usually you have it in the morning time, and if I rip it open for you guys. It is full of custard and this is a traditional dish and I'm starting to think that the cronut actually came from this because it is very similar to like a fried croissant with a filling on the inside. This is so unbelievably good. A little bit of sugar on the outside. It really is like a mix of a croissant and a doughnut deep fried. Yeah, these guys know how to do breakfast. It's crispy on the outside without being kind of greasy. It's soft in the middle and you see all those lovely layers of pastry, and then you've got a lovely soft vanilla custard in the middle, it's absolutely insane, and then of course sugary coating on the outside, breakfast of champions. Barcelona is a wonderland of amazing fresh food done right. While I was just a visitor for a few days, the locals make you feel right at home. I learned quickly that Barcelona is not just a place, it's a feeling. Coming up next week on Gemma Eats, I'm back in Barcelona. I'm taking you on a secret food tour of Barcelona's hidden gems to enjoy great food and even drink wine just like the locals do. All right here on Gemma Eats.