At Barcelona’s El Quim de la Boqueria, a simple plate of eggs and squid becomes so much more.
Nearly every big memory I have in Barcelona begins in the Boqueria. More specifically, it begins at El Quim de la Boqueria, the bustling tapas bar in the center of the city’s most famous market. This is where I came in 2002, a student abroad too broke to afford the exotic food devoured on stools by hungry Catalans. But I came anyway, to watch the cooks dance around the tiny kitchen, turning seafood and vegetables from the market into plates I’d try to replicate back in my even tinier apartment. When I came back in 2010, on my way to Italy in search of a new life, I came here first, finally able to afford a meal that would convince me to stick around Spain a little longer. Not long after, I had a breakfast date at El Quim with my wife-to-be, who convinced me to never leave. And this is where we take nearly everyone who has come to visit us in the seven years since.
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