Viva Espana: a quick trip squeeeezed in between Speciality Fine Food and takingthedaughterbacktouniversity.

It’s been 6 successful years since we first met our Spanish distributor at IFE where he tried to sell us saffron and ended up buying a pallet of Halen Môn.

Since then we have enjoyed a succession of cordial visits, meeting chefs and journalists, and even, on one memorable occasion, receiving an award for ‘raising the level of gastronomy in Europe’.

This time was lower key but every bit as enjoyable as we squeezed in a few days on one of the last Cry and Despair flights to go to Girona.

Francesc Collell has relocated to the medieval village of Besalú, where he has designed and built what is euphemistically known as a ‘warehouse’ but is, in fact, a fantastic showcase for his products. He has called the new collection Singular Food and it includes our Halen Môn sea salts and a whole range of fabulous oils, wines, antipasti, Joselito ham, pasta and rice. Just the kind of place you’d pop into for a foodie treat.

As well as enjoying some home cooking- including a Spanish omelette made with olive oil sautéed potatoes, served with chunks of cod- we had the treat of a second meal at Miramar, Paco Perez the chef patron was one of our first customers in Spain. The restaurant is highly underrated, situated as it is on the seafront of Llanca, and often overlooked by its better known neighbours El Cellar Can Roca and El Bulli, but the succession of dishes brought to our table, including vegetarian ones for our daughter, kept us gasping. A visit to their website gives a link to a Times article written in March of this year for those of you who want to read more.

The final gastronomic treat came when we visited a local baker who makes sourdough loaves in his wood fired ovens and we greatly enjoyed a flat loaf topped with crunchy sugar and toasted pinenuts for breakfast with espressos.

We’ve brought back chorizo and Joselito ham sausage to see us through the winter bean casseroles although the Manchego cheese has long since gone, a bit like the suntan.