We read in The New Barcelona Post that "the Catalan Academy of Gastronomy and Nutrition launches a restorative initiative, the Gastrocat Online portal" to help Catalan chefs, who, since they have to close for these fifteen days, will offer "takeaway or home delivery services". I love it, because it helps. It seems that, in the city we are concerned with, restaurants as diverse as Via Veneto, A Pluma, Silvestre, Gaig, M2 Gluten Free or Merquen have registered on the portal.
During the isolation due to confinement (pardon the rhyme; it's due to pandemic fatigue) those from Disfrutar were already preparing to take away trays of the incredible appetizers they serve ---that they used to serve--- in the dining room. The owner of a small place, Vinus & Brindis, which has a very interesting wine bar, but also a shop (it's on Calaf street, very close to the Galvany market) told me that during confinement the following increase occurred (pardon the rhyme, again it's pandemic fatigue): customers asked the home delivery person to go get them a wine, and then go get a chicken from one of the restaurants we mentioned above, which is on Santaló street, very close: A Pluma.
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Buying a certain takeaway menu (pardon the rhyme again. You know the reason) means that it is delivered to you prepared for you to "finish" it at home. Vacuum-packed and ready to put in the oven or pot. It is ideal for surprising our bubble group. The liturgy will be missing, of course. There will be no tablecloth (whether white, paper with "bon appétit" in four languages, or red and white checkered). We will not see the ill-mannered table neighbors, who treat those who serve them as if they were servants. Nor those light and diligent steps of the waiters up and down. Or having them explain the dish to you. Having them ask you "how was it?", something they only ask you in a restaurant, in the operating room and in bed. But it will be fun, and, above all, we will help. Just as we gobble up, at home, a pizza, sushi, some Mexican tacos, we can also eat a coca de recapte, a suckling lamb or a tasting menu.
Just as we gobble up, at home, a pizza, sushi, some Mexican tacos, we can also eat a coca de recapte, a suckling lamb or a tasting menuCoffee shops, of course, can do the same with coffee (they already did) but it's much more difficult for cocktail bars and pubs, which can't prepare a negroni for you to take away, nor for the tourist breweries on the Rambla, which served those six-liter pitchers (impossible to lift them unless you were trained by the Viennese weightlifting champion, Wilhelm Türk). Those pitchers, by the way, were paid at a ransom price. I had seen tourists discreetly handing over briefcases upon seeing the bill.
If I had to make a list of the men who have given me the most pleasure in life, in the top places there would be waiters. If I had to patent a system to discover the value and intelligence of an adult, I would say that one must ask them how many languages they know how to say: "Another glass of wine."