Barcelona Dining: El Timbal

El Timbal is in the neighborhood in Barcelona where I live, Poblenou.  It is about a three minute walk from my apartment and was stumbled upon by my roommates and I on our first night living in our apartment.  We wanted to eat somewhere local in order to not only get a feel for Spanish food and culture, but also for a general feel of what Poblenou is like as well.  We saw that El Timbal had a menu outside that displayed many options for Tapas, a famous Spanish dish, so we decided to try it.  All of us, however, did not feel comfortable or adventurous enough to try any of the unfamiliar tapas that were on the menu, so we decided to look at the sandwiches portion of the menu
instead.  From what we could interpret--the entire menu was in Catalan, not Spanish--a sandwich called "El Kiki" sounded appealing.  It is pretty much a toasted baguette with grilled chicken, a tomato spread, and another type of local spread, and it is delicious.  What made the sandwich taste even better was discovering that it was only three euros!  Our waiter suggested that we also try patatas bravas.  This was something unfamiliar to us all but we decided to try it anyways since we knew it had something to do with potatoes.  This was a great decision on our part because the patatas bravas tasted even better than the sandwiches.  Patas bravas are thin, circular sliced potatoes with all sorts of seasonings and mayonnaise on top.  Needless to say, we were all hooked after our first dining experience at El Timbal and became regulars there.  I have never gotten anything different when eating at El Timbal: patatas bravas and a kiki always.

                                                   Patatas bravas (in the back) and peppers