A taste of home

Proust, madeleine, secret chambers of memory and emotion unlocked, yadda yadda yadda. Highbrow literary allusions aside, there’s no taste like home – your mother’s cakes, grandmother’s stews or just a plain old pb and j. Living abroad those are some of the things you never knew you’d miss so much.

Ricky Mandle and Mónica Navarro know all about how taste can transport you to another world – that’s why they started Delishop. He’s from New York, she’s from Barcelona and they both love food. So they created Delishop products as a way to travel the globe through the world of flavors from all over. They work with artisans to make special pastas, sauces, chocolates, teas and a whole bunch more under the Deli Shop brand (by the way, nice packaging!) And they created Delishop shops to sell their creations along with all sorts of foods you remember from childhood at home. Wherever home might be – frantic for Marmite – rest easy, you’ll find it here. Saurkraut in Reisling wine? Ditto.

Anyway, we were talking about missing home and the food that makes it home. And holidays? Ouch! Are you one of those homesick Americans gearing up to work through Thanksgiving tomorrow thinking of loved ones gathered around tables drooping under the weight of family recipes and holiday cheer? If you can’t go home for Thanksgiving, candied yams or cranberry relish might help take away the sting and you’ll find them, along with delicacies like Pop-Tarts, Newman’s Own salad dressing, Crisco for your pies, macaroni and cheese and marshmallows, at Delishop. You can take a bite, close your eyes, click your heels and remember that there’s no place like home.

Wait, just one more thing! Banana Quik? When did that happen? That was not part of my childhood – how dare they! Is it any good?

Delishop

L'Illa Diagonal

Tel 93 410 797

Hours: m - sat 9:30 - 21:30

Mallorca 241

93 215 1546

Hours: m - f 11.00 - 14.30 and 16.30 - 21.00 and sat. 11 - 21

Travessera de Gràcia 141

Tel 93 238 9945

Hours: m - f 11.00 - 14.30 and 16.30 - 21.00 and sat. 11 - 21

Sabor a casa

Proust, madalenas, cámaras secretas de recuerdos y emociones abiertas, bla, bla bla. Eruditas referencias literarias aparte, no hay nada como el sabor de casa – los pasteles de tu madre, los guisos de tu abuela o sándwich de peanut butter and jelly normal y corriente. Viviendo en el extranjero, son algunas de las cosas que nunca imaginaste cómo las ibas a extrañar.

Ricky Mandle y Mónica Navarro saben mucho de cómo el sabor te puede transportar a otro mundo – por eso montaron Delishop. Él es de Nueva York, ella de Barcelona y a los dos les encanta la comida. Crearon los productos Delishop para permitirte viajar por el globo entero a través de los sabores de mundos lejanos. Trabajan con artesanos para hacer pastas especiales, salsas, chocolates, tés y un montón de cosas más con la marca Delishop. (¡Por cierto, bonito packaging!) Y crearon las tiendas Delishop para vender sus productos y todo tipo de comidas de tus recuerdos de la casa de tu infancia. Sea donde sea que pasaste la infancia. ¿Desesperado por encontrar Marmite? Tranquilo, aquí lo encontrarás. ¿Choucroute en vino de Reisling? Ídem.

Pero bueno, hablábamos de cómo echas de menos tu casa y la comida de casa. ¿Y las fiestas? ¡Uf! ¿Eres uno de esos americanos faltos de América que se están preparando para trabajar mañana, el Día de Acción de Gracias, pensando en sus seres queridos reunidos alrededor de mesas que se caen bajo el peso de las recetas familiares y el ambiente festivo? Quizás los boniatos y la salsa de arándanos aliviarán algo la añoranza. Los encontrarás junto a delicias como Pop-Tarts, Newman’s Own salad dressing, Crisco para tus tartas, macaroni and cheese y marshmallows, en Delishop. Pruebas un mordisco, cierras los ojos y piensas: “¡No hay nada como volver a casa!”

¡Espera, una cosita más! ¿Banana Quik? ¿De cuándo es eso? No fue parte de mi infancia – ¡Como se atreven! ¿Está medianamente bueno?

Delishop

L'Illa Diagonal

Tel 93 410 7978

Horario: l - s 9:30 - 21:30

Mallorca 241

93 215 1546

Horario: l - v 11.00 - 14.30 y 16.30 - 21.00 y sábado 11 - 21

Travessera de Gràcia 141

Tel 93 238 9945

Horario: l - v 11.00 - 14.30 y 16.30 - 21.00 y sábado 11 - 21

Just in time

Just in Time

When things like the Stella McCartney line for Gap Kids or the special designer collections for Target come out, do you just hang your head and cry? And what about when Patagonia has one of their incredible sales. Do you hop on e-dreams to see if you can get a ticket to the US that won’t eat up all you save on your bargains?

No worries now, your fairy godmother will take it from here. Bundle Box gives you a shipping address in the United States, then bundles up your purchases (from one or more online merchants) and sends them here to you in Sunny Spain. Charges include everything from shipping and duties to 30 day warehousing. Also gives you the option to buy carbon offset to, well, offset the carbon you’re using up to get your new stuff.

Register now – they start shipping to Spain next week. (Just heard that Stella McCartney for Gap Kids is sold out online, so you’ll have to bribe a friend to go pick yours up at a store. Sorry, my mother is busy all weekend and forever after that so don’t ask.)

Justo a tiempo

¿Cuando salen cosas como la línea de Stella McCartney para Gap Kids o las colecciones especiales de diseñadores para Target, bajas la cabeza y lloras? ¿Y cuando Patagonia hace sus increíbles rebajas? ¿Te metes en e-dreams para ver si encuentras un billete que no se coma todo lo que ahorras en tus gangas?

Tranquilo, de ahora en adelante se ocupará tu hada madrina. Bundle Box te proporciona una dirección de entrega en USA, y luego junta tus compras (de una tienda online o varias) y te las envía aquí a España. Los precios incluyen todo, desde el envío hasta los aranceles, y hasta 30 días de almacenamiento. Tambíen te dan la opción de comprar vales de compensación de emisiones de carbono para, bueno, para compensar el carbono que gastas en recibir tus cosas.

Apuntate ahora - la semana que viene empiezan a enviar a España. (Noticia de última hora: Stella McCartney para GAp Kids está agotado online. Tendrás que sobornar a algún amigo para que te lo compre en tienda. Lo siento, mi madre tiene plan este fin de semana y para siempre - así que no se lo pidas.)

The Recession Sucks

Let's be honest. Everybody, either out of necessity or caution, has reduced their budget and re-systematized their values. Rightly so, frankly. But still, everyone still needs a little bit of fabulous in their life.

Lucky thing then that 24fab is coming to Barcelona for two days to give it to you. Go see them intheir borrowed showroom to rent or buy this season's (!!!!) styles - the kind of stuff you never see here. Not enough fab for you? There will also be a workshop with Sara Vergara. Yes, Sara Vergara - the one with the hats.

24fab Open Day Barcelona:
Wednesday October 28th and Thursday October 29th
Aribua 179, 3º 1ª A
Tel. 93 528 5751
Hours - 11h to 21h

Qué chungo la crisis

Seamos sinceros. Todo el mundo, o bien por necesidad o bien por cautela, ha reducido presupuestos y re estructurado sus valores. Como debe ser, francamente. Pero eso no quita que todo el mundo necesita un poco de fabuloso en su vida.

Qué suerte entonces que 24fab viene a pasar dos días en Barcelona para dártelo. Ir a verlos en su showroom prestado y alquiler o comprar modelitos de la temporada (!!!!) - son cosas nunca vistas aquí. ¿No es suficiente fab para tí? También habrá un taller de Sara Vergara. Sí, esa Sara Vergara, la de los tocados.

24fab Open Day en Barcelona:

Miércoles 28 y jueves 29 de octubre
Aribau 179 3º 1ª A
Tel. 93 528 5751
De 11h a 21h

House of Cards

Walking down Maestro Falla in sleepy Sarria, you'd never know that the little shop with old postcards and funny antique illustrations was the worldwide center of a brand new trend back in the day. In 1965 Salvador Tenn decided to stop working (as in the expression "work at what you love and you'll stop working,") and open a shop for coin and stamp collectors like himself. He fixed it up, baptized it Iris Mundus and ordered two boxes of marchbooks from the Fosforera Española and put one behind the counter to give out to customers and neighbors. And he filled it with his growing collection of coins and stamps, then postcards and playing cards. Then lottery tickets.

Yes! It turns out that there's more than one way to hit the jackpot with the lottery in Spain. Besides buying the winning number (so repetetive, so chancy!) you can collect tickets that weren't lucky the first time around. All because Salvador Tenn, trying to build stock, kept getting stuck with old lottery tickets when he'd cart off boxes of stuff from the little lottery sellers. What most people see as junk looks like a fascinating challenge to a collector's eye and he started contacting the Lottery Administration to find out more about the provenance of strange stamps and special issue tickets. And that's how old, non-winning lottery tickets became something to treasure in Spain.

While he collected, his wife Neus ran back and forth from house and three daughters to the shop. Not long ago two of the three daughters took the shop's operations over from their father. They swear the don't have shopkeeping in their blood, although one had a toy shop and the other still has a ceramic shop in Sant Feliu de Guixols. Still, growing up among all the bric-a-brac and stamps and coins and lottery tickets and playing cards and postcards may gave given them pack-rat tendancies since both Montse and Neus confess to giving a home to cast-offs found on the nit dels trastos. Some things never change.

Some things do though - as girls all three would help their father send his catalogs to collectors all over. Since 2005 they've been posting news to their website and shipping the goods to far-flung corners.

And last winter, just in time for the shop's 44th anniversary they found the second box of matchbooks they'd ordered in 1965. Still work too, so if you stop by for some vintage postcards you might be lucky enough to see Salvador out on his afternoon walk to check in on his little girls and give away a few matchbooks. Definitely worth the trip!

Iris Mundus:
Manuel de Falla 29
Tel. 93 203 5515