La Paradeta: seafood stuff as dreams are made of

La Paradeta was a tip off. Someone did the research then ended up holidaying with relatives whose sole criterion for eating was outside seating. We can all share their pain. Like many of the finest eateries in this city, Paradeta doesn't do al fresco. It caters for it's audience and does that perfectly. If, like me, you're inclined to seafood fever, you'll have eaten here before, in countless dreams. To see them realised takes some sinking in.

It did sink in though and then from deep within arose the fever. An intense, trance like state which precedes a manic dash, fueled, not entirely irrationally, by the fear that all the best will shortly disappear. In Paradeta I was not alone. From the fishmongers slab you choose what you fancy and how you'd like it cooked. If you're unsure they'll advise. We went for oysters, elvers and chipirones, deep fried and clams, steamed with garlic and parsley. I'd have ordered more, lots more, indeed I tried but got pulled away mid sentence to pick up a tray, bread, salad and bottle of wine. You pay by weight, get a numbered receipt then go find a seat. Simples.

The numbers get called from behind a hatch where, for seafood lovers, the magic happens. The pace was perfect. The taste of iodine from seafresh oysters still lingered as the elvers and chipirones were called.

Both were delicious, the elver coating batter as light and crispy as tempura. Next, again in perfect time, came the clams. Possibly the best I've had. Each one a sweet marine sensation.

There are four Paradetas in Barcelona. This was the Born branch. The canteen set-up and no fuss attitude means remarkably reasonable prices. Two of us ate a lot with a bottle of decent local white wine for 36 Euros. Get here early though, it's justifiably popular. As we left I glanced over to the fish counter, all the elvers were gone... knew it. Desert was a short stroll down the road, melon ice cream, a new favourite flavour, I ate it every day and miss it terribly.

Click here for La Paradeta's website

You'll find La Campana Ice Cream Parlour at: Princesa, 36  08003 Barcelona, Spain

933 197 021. It's well worth it.

Revelation

Picked this up in Oddbins tonight because it was new and I was curious, although I suspected it would be a rotten match with what I'd bought for dinner. Turned out to be a light, nicely acidic rustic drop of grog with a dusty aftertaste, not unlike the aftermath of cycling accidents when you end up with a mouthful of grit. Reminded me of the wines you can buy from the barrel in French campsites. In fact, I'm pretty sure a wine very similar to this came out of a fountain all night during a village fete once. Messy.

Lupe Pintos sell really good tortillas... in overly generous packs. Having bought some for my previous post I'll be eating them for a week. So tonight I decided to try a trick learnt from my friend Jo... tortilla pizzas.

Preheat the oven to as hot as it goes with the baking tray in. Smear the tortillas with some passata and a splash of habenero sauce. Sprinkle some precooked seafood and sliced spring onion onto the sauce. Top with torn up mozzarella. Into the oven for five minutes.

Then came the revelation.

While the 'pizzas' cooked I nibbled some of the left over seafood then had a slurp of wine. Unbelievable. A perfect match. That strange dusty gritty flavour and the wine's lightness were a perfect match. Just to make sure I tried another mussel followed by another a slurp of wine. Yup. Better try a cockle with the wine... yup, that works too. Mmm, what about prawn... yup. Squid... just in time the cooker beeper sounded.

So the first red wine I've ever had that really, properly goes with seafood. It's high acidity worked a treat with the tomato, chilli and cheese on the pizza too. Remarkably unexpected. I'll definitely buy it again to serve with a seafood platter to freak people out. Otherwise, as a wine, it's a tad overpriced.

Domaine Mas Theo's organic Coteaux du Tricastin: £8.99 Oddbins.

A red wine for seafood.

Crabshakk

Crabshakk's a great little place. New England meets New York via the Isle of Lewis in Glasgow. On my first visit here, my dinner dates were very late and we were all going onto a Fashion Show. By the time they arrived, I was making good progress through a bottle of white wine. Ambitiously they ordered another. After wolfing down lobster and chips, most of the next bottle was still left... and we had to go. What's a chap to do? To spare the ladies embarrassment I tried my best. In hindsight, consuming a bottle of white wine in minutes is not big and it's not clever. It hit me about half way there in the taxi, as we pulled up outside the Art School I couldn't have told you my name. I was flying.

So I've been itching to come back for a proper paced sit down meal ever since. Then last night the opportunity presented itself, in a rather bizarre way. Grith, pronounced 'grit', over on a visit from Denmark, picked this up in Oddbins after going berserker in T.K.Maxx.

All raspberries and orange blossom. A few years back, passing through Gigondas, I noticed it reeked of orange blossom. The town actually smelt of it's wine. Weird. This was a good bottle, still young, with the unmistakable taste of the soil. Yes, Grith's wine was gritty. Nice. But beware Vikings bearing gifts. From some sort of Blackberry contraption this emerged.

A reminder of my great prowess at prediction and gambling.

No getting out of that, so I offered to buy lunch at Crab Shakk in settlement!

The wine list is short and quickly gets pricey. This was the cheapest bottle on the list and did the trick.

I can go for years without eating an oyster then suddenly crave them like nothing else on earth will do. At the moment it's intense. Oysters and me are having one hell of an affair. I can't get enough of them. They're always on my mind, when will I next see them, taste them, have them? "Maintenant" they whisper in my ear.....

God that was good. The girls had squid tempura and crab cakes. Both excellent. Light crunchy batter, tender squid and small but intense cakes full of crab meat.

Next up we ordered whitebait, fish club sandwich and sardines on toast.

A few Sundays ago perched at the bar here, eating oysters of course, there was some confusion as to what whitebait actually is? Rarely over £7 a kilo's the answer, so frankly this was a measly portion. They were good, as good as baby herrings and sprats get, just wish there were more. Nothing scrimpy about the fish club sandwich.

A triple decker of hot and cold smoked salmon, crab and pollock. With very nice fries on the side. Happy Viking.

"Wait a minute....you're not a sardine!"

Chef dropped one of only three sardines left and gave me this langoustine in compensation. It was delicious. Succulent, sweet, perfectly cooked. The sardines were spot on too. I love sardines but I'm not allowed to cook them anymore. Something to do with everything smelling of fish for a week afterwards...which, in fairness, it did.

Panna cottas for desert. Very correct but not quite sweet enough for me. The coffee was great. Good attention to detail. Nothing tarnishes the memory of a good meal so swift as shit espresso.

So that's Crabshakk. The best bet I ever lost. Angela, front of house, is impressive. It's cramped but that just adds to the buzz. And, whitebait gripes aside, the prices are frankly incredible for fresh Scottish seafood.

Go, go, go. But please leave a space at the bar, just big enough for one man and his current obsession... I'm missing the little iodine scented rascals already.

Crabshakk, (NOT: Crab Shakk or Crab Shack).

1114 Argyle Street,

Finnieston

Glasgow

0141 334 6127

click here for their website

click here for Jay Raynor's review in The Observer

click here for the surprising success story that is Stoats porridge bars