After a week in French wine country, I was ready to head to Barcelona for a change of scenery and to swap excessive amounts of red Burgundy and succulent French foie gras -- for Rioja and ham.
Yes, ham. Not the ham of your mom's ham-and-cheese sandwiches, mind you. We're talking about jamon iberico: Deliciously cured Spanish ham made from black Iberian pigs in southern Spain.
Today, when visiting Barcelona, there's no better place to try jamon iberico at its best, than Jamonisimo (C/Provenca 85, 08029 Barcelona, Spain). After all, I figured: If it's good enough for powerhouse chefs like Anthony Bourdain and Ferran Adria, it's good enough for me.
Inside Jamonisimo, full iberico hams hang from the walls, curing and waiting to be tasted. We were greeted by Albert, Jamonisimo's friendly shopkeeper. With my limited Spanish and Albert's limited English, once we finally managed to ask for a tasting plate for 35 EUR, Albert's face lit up. On a stone slate, Albert brought to our table a tasting of three different cuts of a jamon iberico de belotta: Maza, babilla and punta, from Guijuelo in the Salamanca region of Spain.
The verdict? Slices of melt-in-your-mouth fatty, nutty, sweet, velvety jamon -- unlike any prosciutto, back bacon, or even Serrano ham you've ever had -- absolutely unbelievable.
Gizelle Lau is a travel and food writer in Toronto and is the online editor for TripAtlas.com, the World's Largest Online Travel Resource.
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