#WhereToGoInBarcelona - Black Remedy

Black Remedy are the new kids on the block. Owned by the Ascaso family, who also own the fantastic Compak Grinders), they opened in November last year in the heart of Barcelona's touristic yet trendy Ciutat Vella neighbourhood.

It's a slightly bigger space than many of Barcelona's other specialty coffee locations with workbenches for getting work done, proper tables to eat breakfast, brunch, or lunch at, and lower-level tables that are perfect for sipping a flat white on.

Serving great coffee and delectable food, Black Remedy have become something of a hipster mecca already, serving great beans from a variety of roasters including Tusell Tostadores (house roaster for espresso), Hidden Cafè BCN, Valladolid's Puchero Coffee, and Barcelona's Right Side Coffee.

Ideally situated in the Barri Gòtic, just behind the Plaça Sant Jaume and next to the Ajuntament (town hall), Black Remedy (C/ Ciutat, 5) has amazing food and that was (mainly) why I tend to go there with friends (it's a bit out of my way as I'm based in the north-west of the city and BR is in the south-east).

Usually, I have the delectable roasted vegetable and feta cheese salad (their veggie/vegan seta burger is ace too), whilst for meat-eaters, the pulled pork sandwich is highly-rated. If you're in the mood for a guilty pleasure, I'd check out their New York Cheesecake (yummm).

BR is extremely accessible with a flat entrance and several level tables - surprisingly rare in Barcelona's specialty coffee shops - although there's a slight step up to the toilet. The ambience there is fantastic and the staff are incredibly friendly too.

#WhereToGoInBarcelona - SlowMov, Gràcia

SlowMov is an ecological grocery store, coffee shop, and roastery in the idyllic Barcelona neighbourhood of Gràcia, located on the relatively tranquil Carrer de Luis Antúnez (number 18, just after the Placeta de Sant Miquel). 

Carmen Callizo, the founder of SlowMov, was studying as a postgraduate in Paris when she decided that she’d rather spend the days cooking and making artisanal coffee. 

Trained at Coutume Café in Paris by the renowned Antoine Netien, Carmen decided to open SlowMov in her grandfather’s old workshop in the neighbourhood of Gràcia, which she runs with her partner, François. 

They retain a close relationship with Coutume; in fact, their beans are supplied by the high-quality Parisian outfit. SlowMov's roaster, in full view as you enter the shop, roasts beans with a light/light-medium roasting style - a perfect pourover.

Part of SlowMov mission is to promote local ecological businesses; they have adopted the motto of “haste makes waste”. SlowMov mixes roasting and brewing coffee with local goods, including locally-grown eggs, vegetables, and other foodstuffs. There's also craft beer from the Catalan brewery, Dos Kiwis, and locally-made jams and preserves from La Madre de Miren.  

If you're passionate about well-made coffee or locally-produced goods, then these guys are the people to visit: they're incredibly knowlegable individuals and will often take time out to explain the nuances of roasting and making great coffees through your preferred method. 

    

Me brewing up some beans the other week at SlowMov

If you're lucky, you might spot me in there making a v60 or a Kalita, which I always love to share with my fellow coffee lovers.

Have you been to SlowMov? How did you find it? Where should I review next in my #WhereToGoInBarcelona series? Let me know in the comments below.

The Political Elf - my views on Labour, Corbyn, and Brexit

I've been wanting to write a post for a while on British politics and current affairs, so here it is. I'm a member of Labour Party, ergo, this post is going to address my views on the state of the Party, Jeremy Corbyn, and the most pressing issue of our time, Brexit. Hope y'all enjoy it and do let me know what you think.

We need to talk about Labour

Yes, I'm a (proud, yet not always satisfied) member of the Labour Party. I joined in 2009 (aged just 15), back in the twilight period of Gordon Brown's premiership and Labour's 13 years in power, took a break from the party in 2012 whilst at university, and rejoined the morning after Labour's 2015 election defeat in a desire to register my discontent with the fact we had a Tory majority government that would hurt the poorest and most vulnerable in our society the hardest.

In my view, Labour must be a party of government, for it is only in government, that we can fight on behalf of the many, not the few and deliver policies that benefit and protect working class and vulnerable communities up and down the country.

I completely believe that Labour needs to be talking about the Tory cuts to our fantastic National Health Service (I wouldn't be alive without it), social care (this is and will be a growing problem in the coming years, as a result of our ageing population), and education systems.

The education system is something I'm extremely passionate about. I was educated at a special school nursery, a Catholic primary school, a comprehensive secondary school on a Merseyside former council estate, and a grammar school sixth form. Thus, I completely understand the need for a diverse education system, as the path to success is most definitely not the same for everybody. Labour's policies on education must focus on ensuring a mix of high-quality schools in every community and devolving local education decisions to communities, as they are the ones that are impacted by them the most.

We need to also be trying to craft a hopeful vision of our future. Such a policy narrative must be engaging, positive, and progressive: for the many, not the few. It should aim to address the concerns of our complex society, particularly for those in post-industrial communities that feel left behind by technological change and globalisation, that don't feel that Labour, in recent years, has been speaking to them and their communities.

It's not about full-throttle socialism, but about offering policies that focus on what works and creating a secure, sustainable future for all.  

On Corbyn, leadership elections, and communication 

In terms of leadership elections, I have a bit of a weird history: I voted Dianne Abbot in 2010, Andy Burnham in 2015, and Owen Smith in 2016. Politically confusing, right?

In 2010, I backed Diane because I wanted Labour to take a break from the New Labour years and decisively create radical policies in opposition to the Tory-Lib Dem coalition government (yes, I was also 16 and rather politically naive).

In 2015, I thought long and hard about my decision; I considering backing both Jeremy Corbyn and Andy Burnham, but, in the end, I plumped for Burnham as I felt that he represented our best chance of winning back communities that felt abandoned by the political establishment.

A mugshot from my 2016 photoshoot for an article on the Labour leadership election. Credit: Christopher Thomond for The Guardian.

In 2016, despite the fact that I had got behind Corbyn's leadership of the Labour Party in its opening months, I felt that there was something of a disconnect in communication between what Corbyn and his team wanted to express to the country and how they were perceived (Corbyn's national anthem episode springs to mind); the disconnect was such that I felt that we were at risk of losing patriotic, working class voters to reactionary groups like UKIP. 

The problem, for me, wasn't (and still isn't) Corbyn himself or even his policies, but the way that his communications team has allowed him to be portrayed: there's a market for older, grizzled political leaders (José Mujica of Uruguay is someone whose plain oratory and man-of-the-people image I've always thought Corbyn should seek to emulate). 

Immediately after the EU referendum, neither the country nor a lot of the party was feeling much love for Corbyn (his missteps, including speeches where he sounded more sceptical than in favour of remaining in the EU and an infamous appearance on a comedy show where he said he was only 7/10 in favour of remaining in the EU, loomed large), a leadership challenge was called: given my dissatisfaction with Corbyn's leadership, I backed Owen Smith (or Jones, or whoever he was), albeit with the expectation that he would not prevail.

Despite the fact that neither Andy nor Owen won, I wished (and still wish) Jeremy Corbyn well after both of his leadership elections and hope that he can find the golden bullet to get Labour into government. I'm looking forward to doing my bit to help Steve Rotherham and Andy Burnham win their respective Metro Mayor races in Liverpool and Manchester over the coming months. If we can't deliver policies in Westminster, we'll hopefully be able to do it through the new city-regions. 

To those who speak of finding Corbyn's successors, I urge them to unite behind Jeremy and ensure that we can fight against the Tory cuts up and down the country. Although some say Labour can never win with Corbyn as Leader, many said neither Brexit nor Trump as President could ever happen: stranger things than Jeremy Corbyn becoming Prime Minister have happened in recent years.

Brexit - reluctantly, it's time to leave

Credit: Christopher Thomond for The Guardian.

I'm one of the biggest fans of the European Union I know, but it's now time to accept the result of the referendum and push for the least painful exit possible. 

The investment that the European Union brought to Liverpool as a result of it being the 2008 European Capital of Culture transformed my home city-region in ways that are often easy to forget. I was at an event the other week when a former Liverpool player reminded us of how far Liverpool has come in the last ten years: the player was talking about how when he moved to Liverpool, there wasn't even a cinema in the city centre: now, we got new shopping centres, cinemas, hotels, bars, and, of course, jobs as a result of European Union investment and the profile this gave the city region.   

Additionally, as a languages graduate, the European Union has allowed me to study abroad: my time in Barcelona has been supported by the EU both directly, as an Erasmus student at the Universitat de Barcelona, and indirectly, as a postgrad at the Pompeu Fabra through the freedom of movement granted to me as an EU citizen. Some of the best periods of my life have come as a result of the freedoms granted by the EU and I'm deeply saddened by the fact that future generations may not have the same freedoms and opportunities as I have had.

That being said, it's now time to accept the result of the referendum and push for the least painful exit possible. The vast majority of British people have accepted that we will, in all likelihood, be leaving the European Union and it is necessary that our political leaders do so too. 

Whilst some might say that Labour has failed to oppose the government over the triggering Article 50, I would posit that it is an electorally clever strategy: not following through on the result of a legitimate referendum would have devasted Labour support in working-class "Leave" areas and allowed the Tories and the far-right UKIP to label us as 'undemocratic'. 

Maybe the tide will turn against our exit and there'll be a referendum on the terms of our exit negotiations... After all, two years is a long time in politics.

5 questions I frequently get asked about the Catalan language

I'm forever being asked by foreigners and natives alike about the Catalan language is and why it was I decided to learn it, so I thought I'd do a wee post answering some of the questions that I'm most frequently asked.

What is Catalan? Isn't it some sort of dialect of Spanish? 

Catalan is a romance language. Simply put, it emerged from vulgar Latin in the 12th Century, much as other romance languages such as Castillian (Spanish), Italian, Portuguese, and modern-day French. It is very much its own language, with its own culture and history. 

Furthermore, it actually has a vast literary tradition dating back to the Middle Ages. Blanquerna by the famous Mallorcan author Ramon Llull is considered by some to be the first novel written in Catalan, whilst Martorell's Tirant lo Blanch is said to have influenced the evolution of the Western novel in the Renaissance period.  

Catalan has around 10.5m speakers in the territories where it is spoken and is very much its own language; it is only similar to Castilian in that it shares similar origins and has borrowed some words over time as more Spanish speakers have arrived in Catalonia and other territories (however the Castilian that is spoken in Barcelona has borrowed some words from Catalan too: feina is often used instead of trabajo in everyday parlance).

  

Where's it spoken? 

Broadly speaking, there are two distinct forms of Catalan that have emerged: català oriental (Eastern Catalan) and català occidental (Western Catalan). 

Eastern Catalan is spoken in most of Catalonia (especially in the provinces of Girona, Tarragona, and Barcelona), the historic region of Roussillon in south-east of France, and in the Balearic Islands. The accents between these areas vary significantly, however. The 'central' dialect of Catalan (that which is spoken in Barcelona and Girona - albeit with different accents) is taken by many to be the "standard" form that is taught in most schools and imparted by the Catalan-speaking media: hearing the distinct Mallorcan dialect for the first time was something of a shock to my system whens I moved to Barcelona in 2014 and, at first, was rather difficult to understand (although I've now got the hang of it). 

Western Catalan is spoken in Valencia (where it is known as Valencian), the province of Lleida, the franja d'Aragó (the Catalan-speaking communities of in Eastern Aragon), and in Andorra (where Catalan is the official language). The debate over whether the Valencian form of Western Catalan is distinct from other forms is one that has got much attention in recent years and given the difference that exists between the Catalan spoken in Barcelona and in Valencia, this is a valid debate; that being said, from a linguistic perspective, there is much less difference between the Valencian dialect and other forms of Western Catalan - say, that of Lleida.

Curiously, Catalan (in its Eastern form) is also spoken in Alghero, a port town on the Italian island of Sardinia, where it is the co-official language. Part of Alghero's population descends from Catalan conquerors from the end of the Middle Ages, back when Sardinia was part of the Crown of Aragon.

How did you learn Catalan? Where can I learn it?

This is a question that I get asked so often here in Barcelona that I'm thinking of having my response printed on a t-shirt: an English person speaking Catalan is still a relatively novel thing for many here.

When I was studying Castilian (Spanish) for my A-levels, I decided that I wanted to learn Catalan during my degree. I was fortunate enough to study at the University of Birmingham, whose Hispanic Studies faculty had a wee Catalan section (a lecturer, the wonderful Elisenda Marcer, and a teaching assistant), and so I took Catalan classes there for my first and second years. 

I got the opportunity to study my third year at the Universitat de Barcelona. Prior to classes commencing, I took a more advanced course in Catalan at the Escola d'Idiomes Moderns of the Universitat de Barcelona so that my Catalan would be up to scratch (and also to get to know the city better). 

That course was a great investment as around 75% of my classes at my beloved Facultat de Dret were in Catalan, and at the Col-legi Major Penyafort-Montserrat, where I stayed two years ago and am now, many of my friends held conversations solely in Catalan. Needless to say, my Catalan majorly improved during my year abroad (it's now my favourite language) and upon my graduation at Birmingham, I received the Catalan prize.

If you want to learn Catalan, then your best bet is checking out your local university to see if they have a Catalan lecturer/teaching assistant. Here are the universities that I know for sure have a Catalan Studies department: King’s College, London; Queen Mary, University of London; and the Universities of Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Cambridge, Cardiff, Cork, Durham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Kent, Leeds, Liverpool, Oxford, and Sheffield. If there's not one near you, get in touch with the Institut Ramon Llull.

So, do people in Barcelona just speak Catalan then?

No, Barcelona is an (almost) completely bilingual city. The vast majority of people here are equally comfortable in both of the local languages. Generally, the way it goes is that if you speak to some in Catalan and they respond to you in Castilian/Catalan, then the conversation will thus continue in Castilian/Catalan; if you speak to someone in Castilian and they respond to you in Catalan but you can't speak it, they will respond in Castilian. 

I haven't heard of any negative experiences where someone has spoken to a local in Castilian and they have refused to respond to them in Castilian: Barcelona is a very tolerant city and its linguistic openness is one of the things that makes it so great.  

Contrary to the rumours in the Madrid-based press, speaking Catalan doesn't make you an independentist. There are, of course, many Catalan-speaking Barcelonians (and Castilian-speaking too) who support greater sovereignty for Catalunya and many who back independence, yet, equally, there are many Catalan speakers who are not convinced by the need for independence. Just the simple act of speaking Catalan doesn't automatically mean that you want to see Catalonia separate from Spain, but, rather, that you appreciate this beautiful language and want to ensure its survival.

Is it necessary to speak Catalan to study/live in Barcelona? 

Well, considering that this year I'm studying a Masters here in Barcelona on a course that is 4/5 foreigners and I'm the only foreigner who speaks Catalan, I'd say that, rather regrettably, it's becoming less and less necessary in the higher education system here (at least at the Pompeu Fabra - the UB was very much focussed on teaching in Catalan). 

Globalisation means that, in many industries and walks of life, you can get by in Barcelona with English and a very basic level of Castilian these days. An ever-increasing number of industries are looking for English-speaking workers these and some are stipulating that workers have at least a basic knowledge of English. 

Conversely, if you're intending on living here for a period of time longer than just a few months, I would advise you to learn at least one of the local languages - if not both - as it will help you feel much more integrated into city life. My advice would be that if you have a basic knowledge of French, Italian, or Latin, I'd learn Catalan before Castilian as it'll be easier to pick up.

To round this off, learn Catalan: it really is a beautiful language. 

There are amazing books, plays, music, and poetry out there just waiting to be discovered in this ancient romance language. Of English, Spanish, and Catalan, the latter is my favourite tongue by far.

Adéu-siau