Pulvinar, Tarragona

Monday June 8

Actually, there were two good restaurants today. After the opening of the ASMOSIA conference that brought us here (okay, it stands for Association for the Study of Marble and Other Stones In Antiquity - are you happy now?), we found our friend Elise and walked to one of the seven or eight restaurants marked on a map handed out by the so-helpful hosts of the conference, the Catalan institute for Classical Archaeology.

The one we hit was Degusta, and we just ordered a 15-euro set meal - which turned out to be amazingly elegant and perfectly prepared. As we're in that territory, we started with a Cava - Sant Sadurni d'Anoia l'Hereu de Nit 2006, which turned out to be an amazing lilac-pink, and would make a terrific wine for weddings and chic parties. Our starters were bucatini topped with sepia, parsley, and garlic in oil, and asparagus halves on a little fish terrine. We then went on to delicious conejo (rabbit) and more sepia - a line of little ones stuffed with rice, with a red chive and tomato sauce. There was even an elegant torta with starfruit for dessert.
In the evening, after the welcoming "cup of cava" at the amazing Tarragona Town Hall (with a giant sarcophagus in the center), we went out with Elisa, Deborah, and William to a snazzy place perched above Tarragona's stepped street, Pulvinar. Barbara had a pizza alla Tarragona - how often do you get to eat pizza with red peppers and cod? And Holt had bacalao rubbed with pimentón and grilled (which was a mite overdone), along with grilled eggplant, zucchini, and big oyster mushrooms.