¡Viva España!     

We had cunningly timed our arrival in Barcelona for Alimentaria 2008 so that our man in Spain, the wonderful Francesc Collell, would kindly set up our stand. However, inbetween booking our flights and the show he decided that the offer to take an eye wateringly expensive stand as part of the ‘premium’ section of the fair was too good to miss.

Thanks then to Sally-Ann and Jackie of International Business Wales who set up and dressed our stand beautifully for us.

We had a delicious supper in an Italian restaurant- yes, I know, but we were with Francesc’s Italian producers, a pasta maker (Benedetto Cavalieri) and a rice grower [www.acquerello.it], and the restaurant does use Halen Môn on its tables and in the cooking.

The next day I left David to look effortlessly cool in the chic black stand whilst I made the long journey to the other site of the fair- ‘only 10 minutes by shuttle bus’ but sadly a further 20 minute hard walk at the other end.

The show is great for meeting up with new and existing customers and I managed meetings with our men in Switzerland, Australia, Sweden and Belgium, our woman in Iceland, and potential distributors in Finland, Sweden, Chile, Brazil and  Portugal, as well as customers in USA, Italy and, of course, Spain.

The journeys to the show are full of little surprises; on the last morning we caught the Metro I heard and then spotted a small flock of bright green parakeets twittering in the palm trees; out of the shuttle bus window I watched a couple washing under a pump, and a student cross legged on the roadside drawing an old wall.

During the day meals have been sporadic at best, none existent at worst, but the evenings have been a different matter.

The second night we went to our favourite tapas bar and feasted on tuna carpaccio, rare steaks, anchovies, and the most delicious tomato bread drizzled with olive oil.

On the third night the chef, who had been doing tasters of pasta and rice for Francesc all day, kept his restaurant open specially for us and prepared a selection of fabulous foods, all seasoned with Halen Môn. The conversation flowed in English, Spanish, Catalan and Italian as we ate fish liver, pressed pigs trotters, ham, raw cod, chick peas cooked with ham, lentils, white beans and we finished with a bitter chocolate icecream drizzled with peanut oil and sprinkled with Halen Môn.

On the fourth night we went to Inoteca, the Tapas bar owned by Ferran Adria’s brother. It was so cool you had to get past the doorman to get in. Each time they sold out of a dish the same man turned the music down and loudly announced it in a sing song voice.

The most amazing foods here were deep fried tempura anchovies and a truly spectacularly tasting pineapple, perfectly ripe and finished with lime zest and malted sugar syrup.

On our final night we went to a Japanese restaurant where the chef expertly prepared our food on a hot grid in front of us. All the meat was seasoned with Halen Môn and we were greeted with enthusiasm by the staff who clearly loved the product.

The next day we got to the airport in plenty of time to relax before the flight only to find that we had even more time than we thought; due to fog (sounds familiar doesn’t it) the flight had been delayed.

Finally got away and back to Manchester by 6, collected our daughter from Nottingham university and were back home by 11.30.

 Who says working abroad is glamorous?!