Port d'Aiguadolç

We had a wonderful lunch in Sitges on Saturday to celebrate my dad's feast day. El Port d'Aiguadolç, a port complex in Sitges, is one of those places we love on special occasions during the warm season. As it happens, all our most important days except for the hubby's birthday and my own feast day, happen between may and october, so we end up coming back to this place more often than not. The weather this year is absolutely amazing, it started being hot in April and it hasn't stopped ever since. I still remember how last year it didn't really get that hot until August! Of course that was a blessing to me, since I was pregnant and the last thing I wanted was my feet to get even more swollen! 

There's two restaurants we love at el Port d'Aiguadolç: Can Laury and La Taberna del Puerto. Both have amazing rice dishes: paellas and soupy rice with lobster ,the latter being my favorite! That's exactly what we had, too bad I only took pictures for snapchat but forgot about the camera entirely! Btw, go add me on snapchat @oliviaschoice if you still haven't to see what I'm up to everyday! 

I was wearing a gorgeous dress from Dandara, a lovely classy Spanish brand that has the most perfect dresses for special occasions. You can find mine here.

Which other restaurants would you recommend in the area? I'd love to hear!

Palo Alto Market - Barcelona

Barcelona is all about trendy street markets these days: the Lost & Found Market, Eat Street, Mercantic... and since half a year ago also Palo Alto Market. This past weekend weekend we went to Palo Alto, and we loved it. Vintage caravans transformed into food trucks that serve high quality street food, local entrepreneurs that showcase their brands, and art exhibitions, all in a dreamy location: the gardens of an old industrial warehouse in the Poblenou neighborhood. Take a look at the pictures and judge by yourself. I think you'll definitely be paying a visit to Palo Alto market soon!

This pop-up market usually opens its doors the first weekend of every month, but this month is opening up again on the weekend of 23-24 May, so there's your chance! Do not even by one second go there without havnig previously bought your ticket online with the Zapper app (you can find all the info on Palo Alto market's website). The queue to get in is NEVER-ENDING! You can skip the whoooole line by purchasing your ticket (2€) online. Oh, did I mention, the first time you visit, if you buy your ticket online, it's free! 

Palo Alto market

C/ dels Pellaires, 30

08019 Barcelona

Lemon Meringue Pie

During the Easter holidays I finally got to spare some time to bake something yummy. One of J's favorite desserts is the Lemon Meringue Pie, so it was settled. 

Lemon pie before adding the meringue

I had baked lemon tarts previously, as you may recall, so it was basically the same thing plus the meringue. Last time I bought the ready-to-fill tartalette shells, but this time I made the base myself. There's a more complicated way of doing this dough, but I went for the also delicious and 100 times faster version. I just crashed some digestive cookies and mixed them with a bit of melted butter until blended together in the form of a wet paste. For the lemon curd recipe, you can check my lemon tart recipe, and the meringue doesn't really need much of an explanation. 

You can pull up points on the meringue with the back of a spoon for a prettier look

It was SO delicious my husband congratulated me for a whole day. I feel like it turned out really pretty, too, don't you think?

You need to put the cake in the oven for a couple minutes to get this roasted effect on the meringue

Food Styling & Photography Course - Final Project

If you follow me either on Instagram or on Snapchat @oliviaschoice, you'll know I've recently completed Aiala Hernando's Food Styling and Photography course. It is no secret I'm nuts for afternoon tea, and I love to blog about it and take pictures of all the cute yummy treats. As soon as I found out about this course {for which I was on waiting list for several months!}, I knew it was made for me. Now that it's come to an end, I look back and realise that, with two projects per week, it was way more demanding than I thought it would be, and the level was pretty tough. Some of my classmates were professional photographers, so I definitely was on another level, but that was perfectly fine to me. I learned more than I ever thought I would, and I couldn't recommend this course enough for all the foodies out there!

Today I wanted to share my final project. The aim was to recreate a kind of story through pictures. Mine intended to be the story of a simple juice recipe {orange, lemon, cinnamon}, to be sipped on warm afternoon in a coutryside house. I hope you like it!

Granel

How great have the Easter holidays been! I can't believe it's been a week already! We enjoyed wonderful weather, sunbathed under the warm sun in our beach wear, and basically pretended it was summer. I already mentioned in my Vietnam trip post, just how much Liam enjoyed the sand, and he finally got to touch it again! In fact, he went as far as eating it. Before I knew it, he was enjoying a mouthful of Mediterranean sand! >.<

I know we went to Hong Kong and Vietnam just a couple months ago, but I already feel like traveling a lot. I'm currently organising a trip for next month, we're going to Vienna! If anyone has any tips, they will be most welcome.

Anyway, today I basically wanted to show you a new discovery I made during the holidays: Granel. We found this perfect shop that sells all kinds of nuts and cereals in bulk, all in cereal dispensers, in the town next to our summer house. We thought it was new and the sales lady told us they had been open for a year and a half, ha! Admitedly, we hadn't been there for a while! I loved getting to see all the products exposed in cereal dispensers all over the wall, and get to fill my paper bags with the ones I finally decided upon. I bought some very yummy crumble for my Açaí Bowl, since I'm determined to make one at home! Ever since I first tried it at Flax&Kale, I've been totally addicted to Açaí Bowls, and I think it's time for me to try to make it by myself, basically because they charge you 8€ at Flax&Kale for it!

Granel has several shops in Spain, and an online shop, too! Enjoy :)