The Best Pork In Barcelona

No, it’s not aged ham

Bodega La Palma honors the food of Spain. It’s menu is littered with the classics. However, amidst the patatas bravas and boquerones, a novel dish stands out: Meloso de cerdo ibérico con chips de manzana — Iberico pork with apple chips.

Meltingly tender pork lounges in miniature black skillet. Don’t let the size worry you — it’s intensely rich. But this is not just any pork; it’s Iberico pork, and it’s singularly delectable. The prized Spanish pigs live a life of luxury, foraging for acorns on open land. Their special diet and constant roaming results in dark red meat, heavy marbling, and golden hued fat. Iberico pork is often described as nutty or sweet, which it is, but really it’s just porkier than any other pork — a depth that can’t be matched.

Luckily, the team at Bodega La Palma treats the prized ingredient perfectly. After a long braise, the pork quivers under its own weight. Your knife is irrelevant — it can be cut with a sharp look. Richly fatty without being greasy, it is a porcine revelation. Perhaps even more impressive than the pork is how the other elements on the plate stand up to it. Four apple chips top the dish, emerging from the meat like spikes along a dragon’s spine. Crisp, but not crunchy, they are ethereally light. Who knew desiccation could be so delicious?

The dish is a study in balance. Richness offset by a mysterious bitter note; unctuous texture cut by blades of crisp apple. In that small skillet, a star is born.

Where to get it: Bodega La Palma, Carrer de la Palma de Sant Just, 7, 08002 Barcelona, Spain