vegetarianism in catalunya.

i'm unimpressed with how vegetables are cooked in catalunya .. or rather, in the campus cafeterias at universitat autònoma de barcelona.

the salads are plain things:
undressed iceberg with a few tomato decorations.

as for cooked vegetables,
i have seen only grayish cadavers,
their culinary lives cut short by a death from zealously boiling waters.

then again, this doesn't mean that catalunians don't understand vegetarian food. i had this for dinner, for example:

clockwise from left: vegetable tempura, hommos, salad, spinach pudding;
middle: spoon of unknown but tasty sauce;
upper-left corner: a local draft beer called cruzcampo.

comments: i suppose that "tempura" has a fancier name, but these were veggie fritters -- good, but not tempura.

the term "pudding" refers, i think, to the british terminology; like yorkshire pudding. it tasted like a mediterranean spinach pie but more substantial and without the puff pastry.

all in all, though: a good meal.