La Xocolateria by Oriol Balaguer - Barcelona

Oriol Balaguer is one of the most renowned Catalan master bakers. In 2001, one of his cakes {8 textures of chocolate} won the best cake worldwide award, and this year his croissants won the best croissant award in Spain. Last month he delighted us yet again with great news: the opening of his new cafe or xocolateria, the Catalan name for chocolate bar. La Xocolateria hence specialises in all things chocolate, from the thick hot chocolate, to chocolate waffles, crepes, croissants, chocolate bars... Basically paradise :D No kidding, one of the things I missed the most from back home when in Hong Kong was the hot chocolate, and in these almost 9 months since we moved back to Barcelona, I've been having it at least once a week. 

La Xocolateria is located in the trendy El Born neighborhood, next to the Estació de França train station, at the end of Passeig del Born. La Xocolateria is a love at first sight. It is absolutely GORGEOUS as you can see in the pics I took. It has a very young feel, and you need to order at the bar. I of course prefer being served on the table but oh well. I had hot chocolate with the award-winning croissant, and J had a waffle with chocolate and hazelnut spread with vanilla ice-cream. I must say the chocolate was SUPERB. The croissant was really good as well, but I still think these are the best croissants in Barcelona. 

At La Xocolateria, you can make your own chocolate bar by choosing a base (white, milk or dark chocolate) and then adding toppings to it (think raspberry, orange, nuts...). You can make your own ice-cream following the same logic as well.

Visited on: October 30, 2014
Overall Quality: 4.5* {The food is really good and the venue is amazing, but the hot chocolate is served in a paper cup and you need to order at the bar so unfortunately I can't give full marks!}
Price: 1.60 euros for a croissant, 3.6 euros for the medium hot chocolate, and around 4.5 euros for this waffle.
Value for Money: 4.5*
Would I recommend it? Yes. It's absolutely delicious {and pretty!}

La Xocolateria

C/ Fusina, 5

Phone: +34 933 485 267

Closed on Mondays

My Japanese Husband Thinks I'm Crazy

No, this is not about the hubby and I. Jeff is from Hong Kong, which is not in Japan despite lots of people in Spain still thinking Hong Kong is a Japanese city.

This is about an awesome comic book by Grace, a girl from the US, on her daily life in Japan with her Japanese husband, Ryosuke. Truth be told, I think Jeff and Ryosuke look kinda alike! Anyway, Grace is this super talented girl who draws comics for fun, mostly on weird thinks about Japan or on her intercultural relationship. I LOVE to read them. They're so witty and well drawn it's amazing! Plus, being married to an Asian man myself, I can relate to a pretty good amount of them!

Grace has just published her first comic book, called "My Japanese Husband Thinks I'm Crazy", and I just had to share it with all of you. I've enjoyed reading it so much! The comics are hilarious and interesting, for they reveal many interesting stuff from Japan you may not necessarily know about: Japanese food, beauty, traditions, social etiquette... lots of interesting topics westerners may not be familiar with. You can read some of Grace's comics on her blog, or you can order a copy of her book and enjoy the whole lot! 

I totally forgot how I first found out about Grace and her blog several months ago, but I've been in love with her adorable comics ever since! I hope you guys enjoyed this review and you'll like her comics as much as I do.

Afternoon Tea at El Palace Hotel Barcelona

MY DREAM CAME TRUE! It is finally possible to have an English afternoon tea in Barcelona! El Palace Hotel GL is the first one in the city to offer this culinary treat, and I obviously couldn't be more delighted. I've been dying to go ever since I found out about it some months ago, and finally my birthday was the perfect occasion to go and celebrate.

As incredible as it may seem, there really is no other place in Barcelona to indulge in the traditional English afternoon tea. To me it comes a bit as a shock, seeing how every single good hotel in Hong Kong serves it, and not only in Hong Kong where is after all no surprise seeing how it was a British colony, but in pretty much all Asia. 

El Palace Hotel Barcelona is an incredible Grand Luxury hotel from 1919. Its luxurious neo-classical style is of an indescribable beauty. Everything is decorated to the detail in this grand old style that makes you go back in time to the beginning of the 20th century. I absolutely adored every single bit of their magnificent common areas, I can just imagine how gorgeous the rooms must be!

This tea set didn't disappoint. The food was good, the place was dreamy and the service unbeatable. In fact, it was hands down the best service I've ever come across. The china was a very delicate one from Limoges, France, absolutely perfect. 

The top layer had 6 scones, 3 plain and 3 raisin. They were so big we only managed to eat two each. They were served with yummy clotted cream, and strawberry and orange jam. I've never liked orange jam, so if I go again I'll make sure they put another one instead, but no big deal. The middle layer had the sweets, basically four caramel macarons and some petits fours that were pretty good. I particularly enjoyed the macarons, and even though they were so good, I would have preferred having two different flavors, since there were 4 macarons. The bottom layer held the savories, three different kind of sandwiches which we finished and were amazed to see they refilled for us! OMG it's the first time I've had a food refill in an afternoon tea. Not that it's needed, really, we couldn't even have a bite of this refill. Drinks, too, can apparently be refilled, and this is definitely always welcome.

19/NINETEEN bar where afternoon tea is served

The drink choice was either tea or coffee, so as usual I went for tea while the hubby went for a cappuccino. It was interesting to see their tea selection. Most were traditional teas from China, while some were teas from India. In Asia, the best high end hotels offer tea blends from French brands (think Mariage Frères, Dammann), which I'm oh-so-addicted to. The Palace Hotel Barcelona on the other hand serves pure teas instead, which is fine, too, but I still like blends way better. 

Visited on: October 25, 2014
Overall Quality: 5*
Price: 28 euros per person
Value for Money: 4.5*
Would I recommend it? How could I not? Such a delightful afternoon tea in Barcelona, it's one of a kind!

You need a reservation for afternoon tea, and you must pay in advance. They charge your credit card 48h prior the reservation, so there is no canceling after that. They say this is because they need to prepare everything for the occasion, but I personally think it would be ok for them to prepare the whole set just after ordering. I mean, it can't take that long, right? You can find all the details to make a reservation on El Palace Hotel website. Anyway, I would LOVE to go back soon, I missed afternoon tea so bad! If you, too, missed my afternoon tea posts, you can always go over my previous afternoon tea posts again :)

Creps Barcelona

 

It comes as no surprise that Creps Barcelona has already 8 branches in the city. Their crepes are SO yummy! I'm a huge crepes fan ever since I became addicted to them back during the year I lived in Paris in 2006-2007 and ate TONS of them. No wonder that year was the year in my life I gained more weight ever, only topped by this year with my pregnancy. There's nothing quite like the crepes from Brittany, France, where crepes are originally from, but these are a good choice to get your crepe fix in Barcelona. Both the sweet and the salty ones are really yummy, good for either afternoon tea or a full lunch or dinner. 

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Don't plan on ordering a sweet one all for yourself if you're not that hungry though, they are pretty big! I had the white chocolate with vanilla ice-cream crepe, while J went for the Nutella with vanilla ice-cream one. They were 7.5 euros each, the most expensive of the sweet ones, which range from 4.5 to 7.5 euros. The savories range from 6.5 to 7.9 euros, hence I think the savory ones are a better deal!

Liam was 51 days old when we went to this Via Laietana branch. Is it me or he looks older?? He is just so bright-eyed for his age! Oh how much I love him!!! :)

Visited on: October 17, 2014
Overall Quality: 4.5*
Price: Around 7 euros for a crepe, either sweet or savory
Value for Money: 4*
Would I recommend it? Yes, I do! Who doesn't love yummy crepes every once in a while? You can check all their locations here

I was wearing one of my favorite purchases of the season: this frilled blouse I was wearing on Liam's 5 days old pics as well, and this gorgeous nude blazer, both from Zara. Pants are old from H&M, and glitter shoes are from Zendra. Bag is from Miu Miu and sunnies from Prada, but you probably already knew that :)

Married to J for 1 year

Ah, marriage... Some people think it's only a legal document and yet... they are so wrong! It just can't be a coincidence that this has been the best year of my life. I was thinking just about the same 3 months ago, when for I don't really know what reason, I started typing my feelings on marriage on my iPhone notes... I just read it and it made me smile, so I thought I'd share it with you :)

"Marrying J is the best thing I've ever done. Some people think if you're already living together, marriage won't change much, "it's just signing a paper", they say. I do NOT agree.

Before getting married, my relationship with J was a good one, with ups and downs as with most relationships I guess. But after getting married everything changed, for the best. Nowadays there's barely any downs in our relationship, and we're more crazy in love than ever.  Getting married really did change things. I had never felt so loved, secure and taken care of as during this 9 months of marriage. I think the fact that we're expecting a baby also helps in feeling so high, but I still think the whole thing comes from the wedding, and it wouldn't be the same at all if we hadn't gotten married.So these are my ramblings pro-marriage, about the importance of tying the knot {with the right person, of course!}, and living happy ever after."

Happy one year wedding anniversary, J, I love you!