Any good ideas for gifts from Barcelona?

Question

This is my last week in Barcelona and to be honest, I am panicing here. I need ideas on gifts for women and preferrably, not anything from Gaudi. They are pretty good friends of mine and I need something that's from 15 to 20 euro. I thought of getting the clothes from the european brands, but the styles are pretty much the same as U.S. I also thought of t-shirt, cups, picture frames, magnets and ornaments, but I haven't seen any that my friends would like. Any idea?

Also, my mom would like some desserts that's typical in Spain or Europe. A teacher recommended turorre (cant remember the spelling), but my classmates here said it doesn't taste good. Can someone recommend a delicious dessert and the stores that I can get it from here in Barcelona?

Few more days left and I really need some help!! Thank you!

Answer 1

Your mom wants turrone.  It's an almond/honey treat which is typical around Christmas, so might not be too available this time of year.  Try Corte Inglés.  Might be your best bet for such things...  Or go pick up some of those incredible chocolates.  Actually, my friend went to Corte Inglés and found some really nice food gifts to bring home.  (I, personally, didn't even darken their doors in a whole month on our trip...don't really care for the big department store, thing, you know?  then she told me how she had made out and I thought, maybe I SHOULD have done...You could bring home some unusual teas for your lady friends, or just go to the mall and pick up a variety of perfumes.  There were plenty that you would never be able to find in the US.  I particularly like the ones designed by Adolfo Domínguez.  Very nice, though maybe a touch over your limit.  I think they ran about 25€ a bottle, but you might find something a little less pricey that you like.  Interestingly, I don't recall seeing much I recognized.

And then there's always chocolate!  The chocolate there is SO good!  You can just walk into one of the shops and pick out pretty boxes of those hand-made chocolates, or buy bars for them, or get some drinking chocolate.  Just be sure to let them know they don't use preservatives, and unlike American Chocolates, they won't last six months before they eat them.

I brought home some cans of paté, those would make nice gifts, and coffee.  If you have a coffee drinker in the bunch, pick up some bags of Torrefacto coffee.  (that's what you get in the cafés.  - and it's the only place I know of where you can get it.  Just make sure it says Torrefacto on it, or you're going to wind up with something very similar to what you get here.)

Answer 2

Turrón is good, but the different kinds are so different in flavor and texture that you'll have to guess a little at what people might like. The one from Alicante (the most common) is a hard, white sugar-like base with whole almonds in it; it's a lot of sugar, but is good. The one from Xixona (Jijona) is the most famous, it's soft, beige and made mostly from almond paste; I don't like the taste, and I love almonds! The chocolate turrón is what I would consider the best, it's similar to fudge in the US, but made with better quality chocolate (as the previous poster mentioned, the chocolate here is so much better); chocolate turrón is usually hard. My family loved it and asked us to bring more next year!

Another dessert that's hard to get in the US but is common here is marzapan. It's also common around Christmas, but you should still be able to find in the grocery stores (turrón as well). You can get it in bars or in little shapes.   There's a great place on Pg. Sant Joan (at about Rossellò, I think) that makes their own turrón and marzapan and it's really good! (I think their sign says something like "Turrones y helados", if you go looking for it.) They also make "confitada" fruit (glacé in English?) that's very pretty and makes god gifts.

My family also loves when I bring them Spanish wine. What you can buy here for 15€ would cost them $50 to get in the US! So go to any wine store (even the chain Vinus i Brindis is ok, though a smaller shop would be better) and ask for a recommendation based on price/quality. Make sure it comes from Catalunya! Penedés is good, but not as good as the ones that come from the "Ebre" area.

I've also seen little jars of preserves (jam, jelly, marmelade) that were cute and had odd flavors that people in the US would find interesting: green plum, orange, etc. You can get them at most grocery stores, though the gourmet shops would have better stuff (and not as expensive as you'd expect).

Also, for your girlfriends, check out getting buttons with sayings in Spanish. It's nearly impossible to find t-shirts with words in Spanish (it's all bad English!), but buttons are fairly easy to find. There's a street just off Metro stop Jaume I that runs parallel to C/Princesa, in the direction of the cathedral, where you can find buttons and such.

Do check out the chocolate shops. It may be a little expensive, but they'll wrap even the smallest box so prettily that it'll be an impressive gift!

Good luck!