Catalan cuisine is regarded as being up there with the best in the world, and Barcelona is at the center of Catalan cooking. The city is well known for the diversity of its culture, but it also offers equally diverse culinary skills, exemplified by the restaurant Abac, awarded 2 Michelin stars in 2009 under Chef Xavier Pellicer, or the Roca Brothers' one-starred Moo with Chef Felipe Llufria located in the Hotel Omm.

There are many more quoted restaurants, but also a large number of tapas and cafes that offer a fabulous range of Catalan delicacies that you shouldn't miss by focusing too much on the grander restaurants.

Barcelona visitors who have savoured the delights of our national dishes just adore Catalan cuisine, and a large number come back to Barcelona just for the food. There is something about the way that Catalans approach cooking and eating that is almost reverent, and woe betide anybody that tries to hurry a Catalan to finish a meal.

The Catalan diet is Mediterranean in nature, olive oil being used for frying, and a lot of milk and vegetables used, such as eggplant (aubergine), tomatoes, garlic and red pepper. It also uses bread and pasta, a wide variety of fish such as cod, anchovy and sardines, beans and chickpeas, and also a variety of meats, particularly pork, poultry and veal.

These ingredients are used to produce culinary delights ranging from novel chemical creations to very simple but tasty dishes that are full of flavour. An example of the latter that is very simple to make is pa amb tomaquet, a rustic bread toasted and rubbed over with garlic and over-ripe squishy tomato. Olive oil is then added with salt as seasoning. The idea is to form a tomato sauce without actually making the sauce and the result is absolutely delicious. Like many Catalan dishes it is very simple to make yet tastes heavenly.

Of considerably more complexity is escudella i carn d'olla, a traditional Catalan dish generally served on Sant Esteve (St. Stephen's or Boxing Day). This contains a large number of ingredients, often incorporating the left over meat from Christmas Day, and including pig's feet and ears, bacon, beef marrow and ham bones, chicken, veal, sausage and more, all cooked in a broth made from beans, potatoes, cabbage, saffron, parsley, thyme and a special type of large pasta shell known as galets.

This is served in two or three parts, the first being the broth, the second the meats and optionally the third being the vegetables. This is a substantial meal and is also cooked for cold winter's evenings. Not all Catalan dishes are as substantial as this of course, and fricando is a beautiful form of veal cooked in a wild mushroom sauce.

It tastes absolutely divine, and is made by very slow cooking of veal from the shoulder or 'llata', and the mushrooms must be the Catalan moixernon, or St. George's mushrooms. The veal literally melts in your mouth, but it must be cooked slowly, like so many Catalan dishes. People in Catalonia do not rush their cooking; both cooking and eating are serious activities.

Calcots are small scallions that are less bulbous than onions, and are cooked by barbecuing over a flaming grill. The outer layers turn black, and then they are wrapped in newspaper to continue the cooking. They turn very tender, and when the black outer layers are removed they are deliciously juicy, particularly when dipped in salvitxada. That is a sauce made from almonds, tomatoes, peppers, garlic, olive oil and vinegar. They are so juicy that many restaurants serve them with a bib. They can also be eaten with bread and meat roasted in the charcoal after the calcots.

Catalan cuisine is more than just main meals and snacks however, and have their fair share of sweets to offer. Apart from the traditionally famous Crema catalana caramelized custard, panellets are warm soft sweets traditionally served in Catalonia on November 1st, All Saints Day. They are particularly good to eat on cold autumn evenings, and can be purchased in most Barcelona pastry shops. They are delicious with moscatel, but if you want to enjoy some genuine Catalan luxury, eat them warm curled up with a glass of cava.

The great Spanish wines available in Barcelona restaurants and bars perfectly complement the food, whether it is the haute cuisine of the Catalan restaurants or the rustic but delicious fare of the tapas, cafes and bars. You could spent an entire vacation trying out the traditional great Catalan dishes and the smaller but equally enticing breads and sauces such as the delicious Alioli or the divine tomato-based Romesco.

Visitors to Barcelona are very rarely disappointed with the range of Catalan food available, and there is certainly no need to stick to their own national fare when in this great city. Spanish food goes way beyond just paella, and Catalan is the best of the lot. Writer and gourmet Coleman Matthews' 1988 book titled '"Catalan Cuisine: Europe's Last Great Culinary Secret" says it all.