Located in Calle Petritxol, also popularly known as the sweet street, in the Gothic Quarter, the Granja La Pallaresa is a shop which is not very aggressive with advertising. The narrow lanes actually don’t give it much scope. In fact, I ended up walking past it on more than one occasion. In my defence the place was shut for the famous Barcelona siesta time. The board outside said that it would open at 4PM. With the clock saying 3PM, I still had an hour to kill. I decided to check out the Santa Maria del Pi cathedral which was just a 2 min walk from this place.
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| Image Courtesy: Wikipedia |
I returned by around 4.15PM and the place was already buzzing with the evening crowd. In fact, I spotted a couple of people who were hanging around from before. Luckily, I didn’t have to wait outside for long and the liveried waiting staff quickly escorted me in the inner chamber.
Granja La Pallaresa was established in 1947 and has been in this spot since then. Granja means a traditional snack bar and Granja La Pallaresa is one which is renowned for its liquid chocolate treats. The serving staff dressed in white shirts, black trousers and a black bow, are a throwback to an era gone by. The immediate Indian analogy I could think of was the turbaned wait staff at the India Coffee House, that charming cafe opposite Presidency College in Kolkata. Stepping into such establishments, takes you back a few decades and la Pallaresa was fulfilling that requirement.
Taking some inspiration from the Korean women, even I didn’t call for the menu – something that is unusual. I just ordered the Xurros with Suizo, which was clearly the most popular item.
Xurros or Churros are the thick chakli or murukku-like fried food item made of dough (most likely maida/refined flour) which can be had with a dash of powdered sugar atop them or the best way – dipping in hot chocolate. Suizo is the that liquid dark hot chocolate topped with a mountain of sugarless cream.
It took a while for me to get my order (god bless that waiter who approached me after seeing me try to haplessly get someone’s attention) – and in a place like that, that can be torturous if the last meal you’ve had is breakfast at 8AM which is followed by 3 hours of cycling tour. Specially so, when you see the wait staff make two rounds in the kitchen to carry out two plates full of fragrant Churros to the main counter.
I have to say I was a bit disappointed to see just five churros along with the Suizo. “C’mon man, I can surely have more,” I thought. But by the time I was finished, I knew for a fact that I could have had no more. The fried dough of the Churro when had with cream and hot chocolate – is kind of heavy.
The Suizo in particular was mind-blowing. I love hot chocolate and my concept of hot chocolate, so far, had been chocolate mixed with milk and made into a thick consistency. At Granja La Pallaresa, hot chocolate was just that – Hot molten glazy dark chocolate! Of course, getting to the hot chocolate took some cleaning off of the smooth cream layer, which wasn’t sweet. So that was had with sugar-dipped thumb-licks. (I don’t care if you think that’s gross!)
The place serves other specialities as well – such as the Crema Catalana – which is a Catalan version of Creme brulee. And another item I saw in the store window as a caramel custard surrounded by cream dips.
If you’re a dessert or chocolate lover, I don’t have to really state the obvious!
And yes, did I tell you, the weather in Barcelona was cold and it was raining heavily, before I entered the Pallaresa? Imagine, a hot chocolate and Churros in THAT weather:)
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