Xaica Restaurant Dinner

I think we had enough Gaudí to last us several trips to Barcelona. We had a good look at a few of Gaudí’s more famous works and it really is a pleasure to see these things up close. From the Park Güell, we made our way back to the city. We were in the vicinity of our apartment and we were supposed to be going to go shopping, this is what you get for traveling with shopaholic ladies. We made our way to what we presumed was one of the busier area of Barcelona, hoping to do some shopping. I would admit that I am curious to know what the prices of stuff are. To my friends’ dismay, the shops were not open. I wasn’t sure if that was because if was because it was a public holiday, but there didn’t seem to be any shops open. We were around a few blocks but there was no joy. We decided to go for the next best thing – food!

We had a little bit more luck with the restaurants here and we surveyed a few but what piqued my interest was this traditional looking restaurant named Xaica. They have a few of the Spanish food, which I was familiar with, so I insisted that we try this one out. I had a feeling that this was a very traditional restaurant, compared to the others we had been to. So, how traditional was this place? Apparently, very traditional. The staff could hardly understand English and even my smattering of Spanish was useless. The menu was bilingual which made it better. I knew a lot of the dish names and I was excited to try some of them. I order callos specifically just to try it out.

Callos, is basically beef tripe, and it was very similar to what I remember it as. It was a welcome change from what was basically grilled meat and fries. I also ordered another familiar dish – caldereta, which is basically some kind of stew. I was grossly mistaken with the caldereta as it came with fish. I never had any caldereta with fish as I was used to having the beef version. I would still be partial to the beef version as it was much tastier. The caldereta with fish was quite bland and I like my caldereta with stronger tastes. I don’t blame the restaurant since this is probably how caldereta is supposed to be prepared in Spain.

I was very glad with our visit to Xaica Restaurant as we were able to sample some of the more “authentic” Spanish dishes. This seems to be a rarity here in Barcelona as places like these weren’t that easy to find. Yes, people’s tastes change and the market needs to follow. It is good that Xaica Restaurant chose to keep to its origins and do what it does best. I would gladly go back here to try the other authentic Spanish dishes.

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