Bardeni, Meat Bar, Sagrada Família

It’s coming to a year now since I moved to Barcelona.  It’s been a lonely year online.  Don’t get me wrong, I’ve made friends in the real world but I have missed the online camaraderie that I had in Berlin.

I did manage to find one blog with a URL that sounds a lot like mine – FoodBarcelona. The Fodor’s writer seemed to know all about Calςots and I was just discovering them so I asked if he wanted to meet for lunch. Six months passed, he forgot, I forgot, then one of us remembered and we met at his recommendation – Bardeni, a meat bar.

And I had SO much fun!  First of all he picked a place I would probably not have chosen (I can be kind of girlie in my predilection for fish, vegetables and sustainable humane meat sources).  And then he ordered something I lacked the…insight, courage…I’m not sure what actually?  But while I asked for Sardines (€5), ox tail ravioli (€6) and patatas bravas (safe, safe, safe) he went for Nebraskan Angus steak tartar piquante (€8) (Ha Ha, Barcelona is in exactly the same category as Berlin when they say hot, they mean sweet paprika), the Charolais beef (€10) cooked blue and brawn and tripe (€6).

Brawn and tripe. I mean – I was just reading an extended article celebrating 20 years of Fergus Henderson and his championing of ‘nose to tail culinary revolution‘ and in Barcelona it’s not laudable at all, it’s lunch.  In a lot of places.

At Bardeni’s though – it’s particularly good.  And it comes with a soft mess of egg, the white still snotty in places. As it turns out, Catalans are as fond of unusual textures as the Chinese.  The Charolais too is just, well makes meat worth eating – most of the time I can’t be bothered to eat meat because it lacks taste.

Bardeni is the add-on informal bar of next door Caldeni.  It’s owned by Dani Lechuga (his last name means lettuce and I can’t think of a suitable joke right now but it will come to me) and he specializes in meat cooking.  From what I understand, his father is a meat importer/exporter which would go some ways to explaining the eclectic meats on offer.  It’s painted bright red and coupled with lots of shiny black surfaces, not a pretty space.  Quite nineties I thought, which when they started playing their eighties mix tape sort of worked and when I tucked into the meat I stopped caring about.  Which is what it’s all about

Meanwhile, I strongly recommend Steve’s site.  He’s been here since 1997, speaks Spanish and Catalan, is an authentic and thorough food lover and orders really well.

Bardeni
c/ Valencia 454
08013 Sagrada Família
www.caldeni.com/bardeni