Monopoly in Catalan | photo: FernandezMoro

My daughter asked for the Monopoly board game for Christmas or Reyes (Three Kings). Easy enough, I thought. That was until I saw the price and remembered some pictures in my blog photo backlog. A year ago, I took some photos of board games at a department store because I couldn't believe the ridicously high prices. 

Monopoly was going for 39 euros! That is about 50 bucks in the USA! Granted, it is a Monopoly Barcelona edition. So, there is something cool to buying a house on Passeig de Gracia. But when Monopoly costs $15 on Amazon in the USA, the coolness quickly wanes. 

Twister in Spain | 2010

And check out, what you pay for a plastic sheet and a piece of cardboard with a plastic spinner, aka Twister. Yep, 24 euros = $31 in the USA, for good old Twister! And I don't think I will be buying Clue (40 euros) or Operation (35 euros) anytime soon either. 

Clue Board Game in Spain | 2010

Operation Board Game in Spain | 2010

Barcelona's largest outdoor Christmas Market, Fira de Santa Llúcia, celebrates its 225th anniversary this year. The one-stop market for all your Christmas decorations and trees, located in the front of the Barcelona's Cathedral, runs from 26 November to 22 December 2011. 

Christmas Wreath Stall | 2010

Market Stall at Barcelona's Christmas Market | 2010

At the market, you will find the usual holiday greenery, lights and trees. If you haven't heard about Catalunya's poop-related traditions (yes, I said "poop."), you have a few interesting discoveries awaiting your Christmas market browse. You may be surprised to find little statues squatting with a little pile of poop under their tush. Or how about some logs with painted faces wearing hats and blankets. Caganers and Caga Tió are a favorite tradition of locals and make great souvenirs for the folks back home. 

Caganer Stall | 2009

Catalans take their nativity scene decoations very seriously. Here it is called the pessebre and often expands into an entire miniature village depicting very detailed nativity-scenes. At the Fira de Santa Llúcia you can find a section of stalls dedicated to miniature figurines, animals, houses and every accessory you can imagine for your own pessebre. A great stop for dollhouse fanatics. 

Pessebre on Front Porch of a home in Palls | 2011

And if you are really lucky on your visit to Barcelona's Christmas market, maybe you will run into a giant head spitting candy as he roams the aisles followed by Catalan musicians and merrymakers. 

Candy-Spitting Gegant | 2009

:: More Information :: 

Complete Fira de Santa Llucia Christmas Market Information

Transportation and Location Information

All About Catalan Christmas Tradtions

It has been ages since I did a post for my grocery shopping series. But don't worry, I am still taking photos and risking have another run-in with security. In organizing my pictures, I came across this old one that I snapped because I found the wording and information interesting. 

In the United States, I don't believe I have ever seen such an informative food label on a piece of meat. First, the piece of meat is labeled as "Roti de Ternera, Calidad y Origen." I believe a "roti" is somewhat like a roast. (I hope someone will correct me on this if I am wrong.) What I first noticed though was the listing "edad de sacrificio de 8 a 12 meses" (slaughtered age between 8 and 12 months). I really appreciate that the Spanish word for "slaughter" when related to meat is "sacrificio." I believe there is a stronger connection here between the fact that an animal has been sacrificed to provide a human with food. I doubt there are children here that think meat is made at the grocery store! The label also tells us that the animal was born in Spain ("nacido en Espana"). We also know the animal was raised in Spain ("engordado en Espana"), slaughtered and butchered in Spain ("sacrificado" y "depiece en Espana"). 

In Spain, buying beef can be a little tricky. Much of the beef you see in the supermarket, butcher or restaurants is labeled as "ternera." A quick look in your tourist dictionary may lead you to believe that"ternera" is veal. And out the window flies your idea of ordering albondigas or bistec at the charming tapas restaurant. Chat among Spain expat bloggers, language and recipe forums about "ternera" can also lead to confusion, with many insisting that "ternera" is veal.

Now, I am not a beef expert (although, being married to a man from Argentina has got to give me some points!). And I am sure that beef terms and labels are a bit different in my part of Catalunya than other parts of Spain. Definitely different than other Spanish-speaking countries. When we first moved here, my carnivore Argentine husband translated "ternera" as veal. Based on the amount of "ternera" labels I saw while grocery shopping, I was shocked by how much veal Catalans ate. And then I had my doubts. Could they really be eating this much veal - a meat that conventional wisdom says is expensive and controversial?

My desire to prove my husband wrong led me to conduct some informal research at local butchers and supermarkets. "Ternera" is not veal as we know it in the USA. In the United States, a calf slaughted between 16 and 18 weeks is considered veal (about 4 to 4.5 months old). The meat in my picture, labelled "ternera," was much older - 8 to 12 months (32 to 48 weeks old). According to the butchers I spoke with, "ternera," refers to young beef, but not totally veal. For what we, in the USA, consider veal, the beef would be labeled as "ternera lechal" (milk beef) or perhaps "ternera blanca." 

The beef from the above photo is labeled as "ternera blanca," and was slaughtered before it was 8 months old. Possibly veal in USA terms, but also possibly a wee bit older than the USA requirement for veal. I haven't quite figured out the USA equivalent to "babilla." And this young calf got around in his short life. He was born in Germany, raised and slaughtered in The Netherlands, back to Germany for butchering and now being sold in plastic wrap in Spain. 

You many also see some beef in Spain labeled as "añojo," which refers to beef that is between 18 and 24 months old. This beef was born, raised in Germany and traveled to The Netherlands for butchering before being sold in Spain. 

Isn't it interesting that there are so many terms to classify beef in Spain? And wouldn't you like to know where you beef has been before it is on your plate?  

I tend to buy my beef at a local butcher where they know me and love to answer all my beefy questions. Often times, when in doubt, I bring in a picture of the meat cut I want so they can show me the equivalent. I promise to take some pictures at the butcher. I absolutely love going to the butcher. I swear, I am tempted to ask them if they will hire me for a week, so that I can learn the proper way to cut meat. Maybe one of these days I will gather the courage to ask. 

Did you know that San Francisco and Barcelona are Sister Cities? Although I am a Bay Area native and worked in the heart of San Francisco, I did not know about the relationship of my two favorite cities until I received an email Ashley of the travel blog, No Onions Extra Pickles (NOXP). As part of her San Francisco Sister City project she asked me a few questions about life in Barcelona. NOXP focuses on art and cultural events in San Francisco, along with Ashley's other adventures with her perspective as an art historian. 

Barcelona and San Francisco make a perfect match. These sister's are lovely cities near sea and mountains, have a progressive and artsy vibe and offer a full agenda of interesting cultural events. Have a look at my insider tips for exploring Barcelona with children avoiding tourist clichés. 

Barcelona's "festival of all festivals" La Mercè, celebrating the city's patron saint began on 22 September 2011 and ends on 25 September 2011. La Merce is the pinacle of all Barcelona's festivals offering four days of free activities - free museum entry, music in plazas throughout the city, parades, dances, community meals, games, workshops, beachside firework displays and circus perfomances. And it wouldn't be the bigest Catalan festa major without the human towers and people running through the streets with fireworks. 

There are so many events and parties it would be impossible to list everything here. I tried to focus on events that showcase Catalan traditions, such as the human towers and fire-runs, and that are family-friendly.

:: Event Highlights::

Free Entry to Museums: Throughout La Mercè many museums open their doors for free as part of the celebration. Most of the museum offer special events and workshops during the festival - many that are kid-focused. Each museum operates different schedules for "free" days - some are free on several days, others only one day. Check with the official La Mercè schedule for the details of each museum. Below are the museums that I feel are the most interesting for families with children. 

• Cosmo Caixa - Hands-On Science Museum, CaixaForum - Art Museum, Museu Picasso, Museu Marítim, MACBA - Contemporary Art, CCCB - Contemporary Art,  MNAC - National Art Museum, Museum of the History of Barcelona, Music Museum, Barbier-Mueller Museum, Museu Blau - Natural History and Science Museum, Museum of the History of Catalunya, Monestir del Pedrables - Original Monastery, Olympic and Sport Museum, Fundació Joan Miró, and Labyrinth Park.

Catalan Gegants | BCN.cat

La Mercè Parade / Cavalcada: Kids will love this parade featuring performers, music and the customary Catalan "gegants," ginormous puppets who represent Catalan icons. Kids in Barcelona has the parade route directions in English. The blue line on this map is the parade route. Saturday, 24 September 2011 at 18:00.

Beach Fireworks | Juan Jose Delgado Palacios, La Merce Photostream

Firework Displays at the Beach: Each year different countries showcase a firework perfomance at the Barceloneta beaches. The fireworks typically begin at 10:30 pm, check this link. 

Montjuic Castle Grand Circus: From 11 to 19:00 each day throughout La Mercè circus festivities are held at the Montjuic Castle.  

Correfoc | Perfect Travel Blog

Correfoc: A serious Catalan tradition where diablo-costumed Catalans run through the streets with various firework and flame-throwing contraptions, such as fire-spitting dragon. For children, or the more faint, there is a infantil correfoc that begings at 18:30 on Sunday, 25 September 2011 on Carrer de Joan Massana passing through Via Laietana ending at Plaça Antoni Maura (black line on this map). The adult correfoc begins later at 20:30, also starting Carrer de Joan Massana, passing through Via Laietana, continuing onto Plaça Antonio Lopex i Consolat de Mar (dark red line on this map). Spectators should definitely wear long sleeves and hats. Children should not attend the adult correfoc and young children may even be spooked by the infantil correfoc. 

Castellers | 2010

Castellers: Another Catalan tradtion - building extemely high human towers in which a helmeted kid climbs to the top while the tower wavers with the shaking arms of muscled Catalan men and women. It really is an amazing, hold-your-breath type of moment. Castellers will be competing in Plaça Sant Jauma on Sunday, 25 September 2011 starting at 12 noon. 

:: More Information :: 

• Official La Mercè Information: All the information for the festival in English, Spanish and Catalan.
• Offical La Mercè Program La Mercè: Available in English, Spanish and Catalan
• La Mercè Map: Parade routes, event locations and information in Google Maps
• La Mercè Places: Events by Neighborhood
• FotoMercè Flikr Photostream

I bet you don't find this thrown on the ground beside your city's organic garbage recycling bin. 

What the heck is that... you ask. 

• Just your average leg of jamon that is commonplace in the bars and homes across Spain. 

To find out more about Spanish jamon and why you might trip over a devoured pig leg on the ground in Spain, check out my post on jamon. 

If you are looking to buy jamon, La Tienda, a gourmet Spanish food importer with a fabulous online shop, is a great start. I am an affiliate so if you buy anything I will get a small commission, which I will probably use to fund my jamon addiction. 

Fortunately, in researching our most recent vacation I stumbled upon the Inns of Spain website. Who knows why it took me three summers in Spain to find it! Inns of Spain offers a select group of unique hotels prefered by independent-minded travellers. People who are looking for places off-the-beaten-path and craving a more authentic Spanish experience. If you love big resort with organized activities this is not your site. The hotel selection runs from casa rurales (similar to a bed and breakfast) to chic urban boutique hotels within a range of prices and amenities.

A really cool feature of Inns of Spain is the ability to search for hotels along your travel route. In my case, I was looking for a hotel either four or five hours south of Barcelona. Finding a unique hotel that fit our needs was more important than driving to the exact halfway point. So, I searched routes within an hour radius of our halfway point. To search for hotels along your route, you will find the search function pictured above on the Inns of Spain homepage. On the Trip Planner and Route page, you can find some precalculated touristic routes, Washington Irving route and the Caliphate route are a few - or create your own, from which you can save as a PDF. 

Inns of Spain has been around for 10 years, so you can trust their recommendations and customer service. For most of their hotel offerings, instant online availabilty is available. Otherwise, their staff will get back to you promptly with the reservation possibility. I was surprised with how quickly they responded to my availabiltiy inquiries and emailed me questions to ensure we had a great stay. Inns of Spain handles all the communication with the hotel, which makes it easier with language barrier. If you are planning a vacation to Spain and looking for an off-the-beaten path hotel, be sure to book early as many of these places only offer a few rooms. 

The company that runs Inns of Spain, also offers Inns of Italy, Inns of France, Inns of Argentina, Inns of Morocco, Inns of Chile, Inns of Costa Rica, Inns of Portugal and a site dedicated to the Paradores of Spain. While I haven't used these different sites (I hope to soon!), I feel confident recommending them based on my experience with their Spain site. 

Awhile back, I mentioned that I have a huge backlog of photos to post on this blog. One of the categories is street art. As a walk through city streets I am constantly scanning the walls high and low for interesting graffiti. I always take pictures of interesting work and have neglected to write about it since I started this blog. 

So here it goes... my first of what I hope will be many. 

Isn't this one great? I love that it takes a globally-recongized symbol for women and makes the slightest change. A teeny change that makes a huge impact. I found this somewhere strolling through Amsterdam, where we vacationed in April 2011.

Many people will gather on the beach to light bonfires, watch firework displays over the Mediterranean, drink cava and eat cocas. Since we will have the kids and mi suegra (mother-in-law) in tow, we will be checking out the festivities in Sant Cugat. There is a parade of the arrival of the La Flama del Canigó, which will light bonfires throughout Catalunya. And without a doubt, we get a big dose of the Catalan festival usual suspects - sardaners, bastoners, diablos and castellers. Later, we will watch the fireworks from our terrace while sipping Codorniu cava and nibbling cocas. You can read one of my older blog posts to see how we celebrated Sant Joan a few years ago. 

Traditional Catalan Cocas, Frutas and Llardons

The celebration of Sant Joan is full of symbolic meanings related to herbs, water and fire. Skinny dipping along the bonfire-lit beaches isn't just a bit of racy fun, it is healthy. On the night of Sant Joan, water is believed to have strong curative powers. "Bany de Sant Joan, salut per tot l'any" (Catalan translation: Bathe on Sant Joan and have health for the whole year.) Some may gather herbs (no, not those kind - more likely verbena, thyme, rosemary and Sant John) for treatments as their medicinal properties is believed to be 100 times stronger on this night. "Les herbes de Sant Joan tenen virtut tot l'any" (Catalan translation: The herbs of Sant Joan retain their virtues all year round.) Bonfires and firecrackers are lit to purify and cleanse oneself of misfortune. "Qui encén foc per Sant Joan no es crema en tot l'any" (Catalan translation: He who lights the fire for Sant Joan will not burn all year round.)

More Information About Sant Joan and Activities in Barcelona:

• Barcelona Sant Joan Activities (English) 
• Recipes for Traditional Sant Joan Cocas
• More About Sant Joan

Since I recently wrote about Catalan birthday parties, I thought I should list some of the places where I buy my baking supplies in Barcelona or sites that have EU shipping. As I mentioned in that post, the baking section in supermarkets here is very limited. No pure vanilla extract. No chocolate chips. Powdered sugar is a plastic shaker bottle. You will have to find baking powder in the another section. And flour in another. 

Keyks in Madrid: An extensive retail and online store with super fast shipping and great customer service that has nearly everything you need for cake baking, decorating, candy making and the latest cake trend, "cake pops". I ordered powdered sugar by the kilo (it comes in a plastic bag) and rolled fondant from here. Owner Isabel also stocks lots of Wilton supplies, baking pans WITHOUT teflon (and some with non-stick also), and some cute cupcake liners. Keyks even has online cake decorating classes.

Sole Graells: Catering more to restaurants, caterers and professional chefs Sole Graells stocks a lot of ingredients that the average home baker won't need. Although it is fun browsing the chemistry-looking appliances used for creating the foams and gels that were popular at El Bulli. If you are hosting a party, you can also find lots of fun accessories for displaying and serving food, like test tubes for shots of gazpacho. At Sole Graells, I have bought food colorings, dark brown sugar, ready-made cake flowers and cake decorating gadgets. If you really want to stock up on pure vanilla extract they have a huge bottle; in addition to lots of other great aromas, extracts and spices. 

Químics Dalmau: This is a real drugstore/chemist selling raw chemical ingredients. I have bought cream of tartar (crémor tártaro) and pectin (pectina) here, which you order by the gram and receive in a little baggy. They also stock lots of essential oils, nut oils and aromas. They have a store in Barcelona and will also ship to you if you phone in an order. 

DeliShop: Several shops throughout Barcelona, and soon online, sell some baking supplies from the USA along with other hard-to-find international imports and gourmet items. I buy Nielsen-Massey vanilla extract from DeliShop. You will also find cake mixes, maple syrup, chocolate chips and even marshmallows. Expect to pay mouth dropping prices for a box of Cheerios, but every now and then it is worth every euro. 

Fabulous Baking Company: Visiting this bakery and cooking store has been on my list since I heard about it last year. I still can't believe I haven't been there! According to their website, they will have online shopping soon. In addition to a great bakery (from my sources who have been here), FBC has baking and cooking classes and a well-stocked baking supply and gadget boutique. Since I haven't been there, I can't say for certain, but according to their website photos it looks like they stock some American baking ingredients like vanilla extract, corn syrup, Crisco, Wilton products and tons of fun gadgets. I promise to go there this summer, even if it means eating a brownie and abandoning my "operacion bikini" efforts. 

Vinçon: An upscale modern-design furniture and homegoods store in the Eixample of Barcelona that sells a wide range of fun cooking and baking gadgets. Vinçon sells lots of silicone baking moulds, pastry decorating tools, high-end kitchen mixers and small appliances.  

Cooking, The Kitchen Company: A great kitchen gadget and cooking store, also in the Eixample. The store carries lots of solid brands such as Le Creuset, Lekue, Emile Henry, Staub, Cuisinart, KitchenAid, OXO and Kenwood. 

I am sure there are many other great resources for baking and cooking supplies? Know of any in Barcelona or stores that have great EU shipping rates? Add it in the comments and I will put it on the list. Muchas Gracias!