Tuesday, August 05, 2008

Birthday in Spain

After a night of El Bulli (yes, yes, it's coming, alright?), we awoke the next morning to see off Umami and her husband, as well as the walking stomach that is my Cha Xiu Bao (respect man, respect!).

Then the boy and I headed into Girona, where we were a bit shocked to find was an incredibly sleepy town on a bright Sunday afternoon, in search of a birthday worthy lunch... the trick was finding one which was open.

We found one alright, Casa Marieta. We sat outside, enjoying the quiet half hour before the restaurant filled up and looked over what we wanted to eat.



I started with the melon soup as it sounded refreshingly cool, which it was. However, it was outshone by the very umamilicious gazpacho, which was served with condiments on the side (I much prefer it that way). The boy and I kept switching bowls and devoured the flour dusted warm rolls.


Which wasn't too smart for when the Fideuà for two came. Made similarly to the Spanish paella, it was made with short thin noodles. Very similar to a slightly thicker, broken Chinese mai-fun (rice noodle). It was infused with the rich seafood broth and served chock full of seafood in the form of calamars, shrimp and clams.


It was delicious, with little crunchy bits where it had been cooked on the top and rich soft noodle-y bits. Perfect rich comfort food.

We were expecting that the white asparagus and the grilled calmari we ordered to come at the same time but they were served after the fideuà, which meant that we were a bit too full to enjoy it. The boy loved his garlicky calamari and I struggled to finish the plate of very average, canned-tasting asparagus.

The service was lovely and it was a great way to while away two and a half hours. The food was a bit hit and miss but still a very nice birthday lunch in Spain.

Oh, and if you do go, don't miss going down to the basement where the toilets are, there's a little rock fountain and stream there under glass.

Casa Marieta
Plaça Independència, 5-6
17001 Girona
Tel. 972 20 10 16

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jessie, you are SUCH A TEASE...

Sui Mai said...

Mwahahahhaahhaa

(that's my Eeevil cackle by the way!)