Komokieras

As the saying goes, when in Spain,…
On my recent trip to Sitges, I was looking to have some authentic local food. Philippe, the manager of my hotel, straightaway recommended Komokieras and rang to make me a reservation — I’m glad he did because it did get really busy in the restaurant.
I betrayed my lack of knowledge about local cultural customs by asking for a table at 7. Philippe gave me a sad look and told me that that’s very early for dinner in Spain and that the authentic restaurants opened much later. So, I settled for a table at 8.30.
Komokieras serves Catalan food and as promised, the clientele were locals rather than the international throngs surrounding the ‘international restaurants. However, I was relieved to see menus printed in 4 languages — it was also interesting to learn new words by comparing the Spanisg to English and French.
I was offered a free apéritif of cava. Although I don’t drink, I didn’t want to offend my hosts and politely sipped on it all evening alongside my freshly squeezed orange juice. I also got some lovely mild olives and warm bread as freebies.
I was sitted in the nice covered verandah part of the restaurant, lovely with a cool evening breeze though the only slight problem was that some of the diners were smoking in that area. One thing I did pick up in Spain was how many people smoke.
As my review started, when in Spain,… So I went for 3 Catalan specialities — veal sweetbreads, suckling pig and apple bunyols (fritters)
I do enjoy sweetbreads and I think I’ve eaten a whole host of different glands. However, this was the real thing — testicles! They were given a wonderful charred crust and served with a line of blasamic vinegar and bread with a tomato topping. I loved the creamy texture of the sweetbreads.
The suckling pig was a little more boney than expected — I had to dig into some of my latent surgical skills to dissect some of the meat but it was plentiful. The pork was succulent but still falvoursome despite the young age of the pig. It came with mash that was a little dry buty lovely grilled courgette.
The apple bunyols were quite light and served with coconut ice cream. Good end to the meal.
I left, happily fed and satisfied that I’d tried some Catalan food on my travels.