And then of course, dessert!
I was a little nervous to try calçots because on the outside these cooked vegetables do not look appealing. (Blackened green plants, anyone? Yuck!) However, as I will explain in the preparation section below, the real calçot is to be found inside this unpromising exterior. To get to this delicious substance, you must slide the charred portion off. I struggled to peel of the skin the first time, but with a little practice I got better. It is a messy and hot food to eat: my fingers were blackened with charcoal and almost every time I chose a new calçot I burned myself. But it was worth it! They were absolutely delicious.
Calçots are simple to prepare: simply place calçots into a fire and char them black. After, they are served on a hot, ceramic plate, with wood underneath. It is up to each person to peel their own and then dip the pieces into sauce. We went to a kind of buffet, meaning that we were served at least five huge ceramic plates full of calçots. I lost track of the number of individual vegetables we ate! Everyone wore a bib to keep themselves clean, because calçots are definitely a messy food.
Calçots are originally from the Catalan region of Spain in which Barcelona is situated. These vegetables are, therefore, a part of culture here. Each year with the harvest, there are large barbecues called calçotadas where people in the region devour calçots by the hundreds.
