bunyols and the best gazpacho in the whole wide world!

A few weekends ago, the girls and I went to the Costa Brava to visit The Dali Theatre Museum in Figueres, the beautiful beach town of Cadaquez, and sleepy Perpignon, just a few miles past the French border.  The Dali Museum was incredible, and I highly recommend it to those who have an extra day to explore outside of Barcelona.  Just a few hours away from the big city, Figueres is where famous artist Salvador Dali was born.  After visiting the museum, we were starving, but weren’t allowed to have lunch yet, so we grabbed a snack at a little bakery down the street.  Bunyols are a very typical Catalan doughnut-type of pastry (every culture has it’s own version of fried dough…), that are rolled in sugar and have a little bit of anise flavoring, or sometimes even little anise seeds inside.  When done right, they are fluffy and sweet and melt in your mouth.  In Figueres, I encountered a type of Bunyol that I had never seen before… cream-filled.  Obviously, I had to try one.  My expectations were far exceeded.  Not only was the bunyol the perfect mix between chewy and fluffy, but the unsweetened, freshly-whipped cream in the middle tasted like a cloud plucked from heaven.

Happy Tilly.

Later that afternoon, we stopped in Cadaquez to visit Dali’s house and have some lunch.  We only had a few options in terms of restaurants, and after lots of pacing back and forth in front of the main drag of patios, we made the right choice.  We immediately ordered a pitcher of Sangria before our butts hit the chairs.  As it was a fairly nice day out (and the patio had plastic curtains protecting us from the wind), I ordered the gazpacho.  Never in my life had I seen gazpacho served like this was.  First of all, it was orange.  And secondly, it was served with a little plate of goodies to dump inside, which included hard boiled egg, fresh croutons, and finely diced onion and bell peppers.  I emptied my little plate into the bowl of cold orange soup (as the waitress motioned to me with her hands) and gave it a stir.  I have officially been spoiled for life.  The gazpacho was tangy and tasted like summer, with crunchy bits mixed in to keep things interesting.  I finished my bowl in no time, and was finally yanked out of my day-dream like state five minutes later, when my roommate refilled my glass of Sangria, knocking the miniature wooden spoon against the inside of the big glass pitcher.  Since that day, I have vowed to figure out that recipe and re-create it to the best of my ability.

Summer in a bowl.