The pleasure of eating: Pollo Rico

“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.” 

― Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own

“Blood may be thicker than water, but it's certainly not as thick as ketchup. Nor does it go as well with French fries.” 

― Jarod Kintz, This Book is Not FOR SALE

When you live in a foreign city, you are interested in searching for places to visit, museums, bars, discos and so on, but there is another aspect of great relevance that should intrigue you - and that we unforgivably disregard on this blog: cooking.

You’re not fully enjoying your stay in a city if you don’t explore the local dishes, flavours and spices. The hugest mistake you can do is trying to reproduce your native country’s cooking in another place: if you want to integrate yourself, you have to be open-minded and to discover the typical cooking of the country you’re living in. Cookery is an important feature of each country's culture: you cannot say that you really know one place without tasting its cooking. 

The pleasure of food

I’m not here to suggest you restaurants in which you will taste haute cuisine at very expensive prices: we are students or interns, so we are searching for something good, but also cheap. That’s why I am going to present you a very rustic, cheap and cheerful place located in one of the most historical and characteristic barrios, El Raval. The restaurant is called Pollo Rico and takes its name from its main dish. This restaurant is a little bit unrefined, but there you can breathe the real atmosphere of El Raval and – above all – you can give a try to the typical Barcelonian cooking at very low prices.

Pollo Rico

As said, the main dish of this restaurant is chicken (‘pollo’). Pollo rico means 'succulent chicken' and it describes perfectly the course, which is really tasty. The combination ½ pollo and patatas al horno (or fritas or – for the gluttons – bravas) is the one I suggest you. If you’re not that hungry, you can choose the ¼ version. After the main course, you can end with crema catalana, the most famous Catalan dessert. 

If you don’t like chicken, anyway, there’s plenty of dishes among which you can choose, and with 8-10€ you can satisfy your appetite completely. 

Pollo y patatas fritas

Moreover, in this place you can enjoy the spirit of this barrio, goliardic, rustic and familiar. I strongly suggest you to go there once: if you’re not searching for fancy places, but for something down to earth, you’ll appreciate it.