Part of the rationale for renting an apartment in Barcelona was to save over 50% on exhorbitant hotel rates (say USD450 for a triple in the neighborhood we wanted) and to be able to take advantage of food from the nearby market. Of course no one wants to cook constantly during a busy trip but the option of eating what you want when you want to is nevertheless attractive. We found a cozy two-bedroom apartment in a three story walk-up on Portaferissa Street just a few minutes walk from La Boqueria. Major downside were the incredibly narrow stairs and no porters! We prepared 3-4 of our dinners there as the prospect of a super late dinners with the Kid and after a full day of sightseeing wasn’t too appealing… Our first dinner was simple yet satisfying. First a salad of mixed greens with some sliced jamon and a balsamic vinaigrette dressing…
The selection of lettuces in this salad mix were terrific. Some frisee, young lamb’s lettuce, romaine, arugula and radicchio as well. They were really fresh and delicious. The jamon we decided to throw in because we had so much and had to figure out how to eat it all… It worked well, flavorful, 
salty and a nice foil for the salad and sharp dressing. We followed this with a simple pasta with a bacon and tomato sauce that my wife cooked. My daughter picked out the multi-colored pasta. Add some grated parmesan cheese and we had a delicious, nutritious and reasonably priced dinner for three…for dessert we headed out for some fantastic ice cream around the corner…
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When I was in Rome with my family we rented an apartment in the center of the city for a week. While we didn’t save 50% off hotel fees we paid roughly the same we would have if it were a normal hotel, but were in a much more central location and were within walking distance of local markets, the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, etc.
That salad looks delicious! I really liked mixed greens with salted meats as well. The key I think is to have a mixture of bland and slightly bitter greens, and to have a nice and tart vinaigrette.
Are you going to have some jamón ibérico while you’re there in Spain?
fried neurons…you are reading my posts before I even get to write them! Yup, gotta get me some Iberico soon! Wysgal, must have been a NICE apartment!
well let me know if you were able to taste any jamon jabugo.