Pa de Sant Jordi, bread striped with the bright yellow and red of the Catalan flag to celebrate La Diada de Sant Jordi, may be the new-kid-on-the-block of culinary traditions in Barcelona, but it’s been accepted by nearly everyone as a genuine part of the holiday. The patriotically colored bread is now a ubiquitous presence in bakeries throughout the city come April 23.

Sometimes the wine is so good, you forget about the food on your plate. And sometimes, the simplest bite has you forgetting your expensive wine, the people you’ve come out to dine with, and maybe even your own name. Your friends around the table are all laughing, and you have no idea about the joke. For a few seconds, you're lost in primitive aesthetic bliss, pure satisfaction, and something akin to communion with the universe. Here are a few moments from 2024 when we got lost in food, oblivious to the jokes and comments of our competitions at tables in Barcelona, La Garrotxa (in north Catalonia), and Galicia.

While even glass-half-full types are calling Spain’s economic forecast gray, the food climate in the Catalan capital couldn’t be sunnier. With packed tables, new venues such as Tickets and 41˚, and Spain’s hottest restaurant, Can Roca (recently voted #2 in the world) just a stone’s throw away in Girona, Barcelona’s restaurant scene provides an elixir guaranteed to cure the eurozone’s worst economic hangovers. Interviewed recently on Spanish national television, legendary chef Ferran Adrià was asked by radio journalist Luis del Olmo, ¿Cómo se cocina la crisis? (How does one cook the crisis?) Adrià answered, “With innovation and taking risks.”