The best way to travel and experience a culture is through food. Throughout our study abroad trip, we will be learning about Food Writing in Literature. This entails eating and learning about the local Catalan cuisine in Barcelona and the neighboring areas, and being able to describe in great detail how food is an integral part of our culture, identity, and humanity
For the past two days, we left Barcelona and traveled to a beautiful Masia, a traditional Catalan farmhouse called Masia Can Plans. The Masia is a 13th-century farmhouse located in the middle of the Montseny natural park. It is off the grid, making the farmhouse an amazing place to learn to cook traditional Catalan cuisine using local ingredients sourced from the farm, as well as using traditional cooking methods such as an open fire and a wood-burning stove. Today, we had a farm-to-table experience; it was delicious and tremendously informative. For breakfast, we had a breadmaking workshop where we made our own bread and coques (Catalan pizza) dough. The dough will be used for our dinner and the bread, for breakfast the next morning.
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| Masia Can Plans |
For lunch, we harvested calçot, a type of green onion local to the region that was then roasted on a fire. We ate the calçots with a tomato, nut-based sauce called romesco. The calçots were buttery, soft, sweet, and fragrant, filling the air with the smell of something similar to onions. This was my first time trying the vegetable and definitely won't be my last.
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| Grilled Calçots |
We then started our 24-hour traditional cooking experience. We went to the surrounding areas to chop and gather pinewood to heat an 800-year-old stone oven for our upcoming meals. Once the oven was lit, we started our cooking class which included the making of the coques and the preparation of goat and chicken dishes. Much time, effort, and love were put into the preparation of the meals. The coques, traditionally topped with tomato sauce, onions, green peppers, red peppers, were tremendously flavorful. We were able to add our own twists like adding cheese and ham. Oven-baked apples were for dessert and paired with scrumptious old-fashioned vanilla ice cream. The goat and chicken dishes will be placed in the oven and slow-cooked throughout the night. Pears doused in red wine will also be placed in the oven overnight. These dishes will be eaten for lunch the next day. All of the flavors will combine within the oven to create a perfect blend of fragrance and aromas for us to try.
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| Coques |
This was the first time I participated in a farm-to-table meal. It was a very knowledgeable and once-in-a-lifetime experience for myself and the class. I learned so much about the regional vegetables and foods. This experience would not have happened if it wasn't for the generous donation from the Michael ’58 and Aimee Kakos Scholarship. I am tremendously grateful to be able to learn so much from this experience and am thankful for the financial relief provided by this generous scholarship.
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