What to eat in Barcelona
Catalan food, not generic Spanish: pa amb tomàquet, calçots, fideuà, escalivada, vermouth before lunch and a bodega instead of tourist paella.

[ ] Eat pa amb tomàquet
    Bread rubbed with a cut tomato, dressed with olive oil and salted. It is not a starter but the default Catalan bread, served alongside everything, with any meat or cheese.
[ ] Try fideuà
    Paella logic with short thin noodles instead of rice, standing on end in the pan and toasting at the tips. It comes from the coast south of the city, is made with seafood and arrives with allioli.
[ ] Order escalivada
    Aubergine, pepper and onion roasted directly on embers until the skin blackens, then peeled and dressed with olive oil. Served cold, often with anchovies and on pa amb tomàquet.
[ ] Try calçots in season
    Long sweet green onions charred over vine cuttings and eaten with your hands, dipped in romesco. The season runs from late winter into early spring, and it is less a dish than a whole countryside feast.
[ ] Try esqueixada
    A salad of salt cod torn by hand into strands with tomato, onion, olives and olive oil. A summer dish: the cod is never cooked, only soaked, and stays firm.
[ ] Eat a bomba in Barceloneta
    A potato ball stuffed with meat, fried in breadcrumbs and topped with a spicy sauce and allioli. Invented in the port quarter and still its signature snack.
[ ] Try botifarra amb mongetes
    A fat white pork sausage from the grill with white beans fried in pork fat. A plain Catalan main that appears in every bodega and on every menú del día.
[ ] Try suquet de peix
    A fishermen's stew of white fish and potato in a broth thickened with picada, a paste of nuts, garlic and bread. It began as a way to use the unsold catch and is now the coast's main fish dish.
[ ] Try Catalan canelons
    Pasta tubes filled with the meat from yesterday's roast, covered in béchamel and baked until browned. Traditionally the dish of the day after Christmas, a way to finish the festive roast.
[ ] Order tinned seafood with vermouth
    Pickled mussels, sardines, belly tuna, cockles — all from a tin opened in front of you. This is not thrift but a cuisine of its own: good tinned seafood costs more than fresh fish.
[ ] Try crema catalana
    A milk custard scented with citrus zest and cinnamon under a lid of burnt sugar. Unlike crème brûlée it uses no cream and arrives cold rather than warm.
[ ] Try mel i mató
    Fresh unsalted mató curd cheese with dark honey and walnuts. The oldest Catalan dessert and the lightest way out of a heavy lunch.
[ ] Have xurros amb xocolata
    Ridged strips of fried dough dipped in a hot chocolate so thick it resembles melted bar chocolate. Eaten in the morning or after a night out, never as an after-dinner dessert.
[ ] Drink orxata de xufa
    A cold drink made from tiger nuts: sweet, nutty, milk-coloured and entirely plant-based. A summer staple sold in dedicated orxaterias from May to September.
[ ] Do the vermut before lunch
    Red vermouth over ice with an orange slice and an olive, drunk at midday at weekends — not after a meal but as the aperitif ritual itself. Locals use the phrase as a verb for the whole outing.
[ ] Try cava
    Sparkling wine made by the traditional method in nearby Penedès, dry and noticeably mineral. In Barcelona it is not a celebration wine but an everyday one, drunk with seafood.

Checklist from Unload: https://unloads.me/c/food-barcelona