A dream of reeds with burritos and live music

BordilsJep Morales Albert (Girona, 1972) has built a dream of reeds, tarpaulins and recycled materials that concentrates everything that makes him enjoy: cooking, music, art and contact with nature and people. La Carreta del Ter has been stopping for six years now behind the Bordils pavilion, in a "magical space in constant transformation" that, in the middle of the fields, offers tapas, burritos, paellas, good live music and extraordinary sunsets. "Here you find people of all ages and conditions, it's like Noah's ark (animals included) where everyone is welcome," explains Jep Morales.

A wandering chef and environmentalistOf Peruvian father and Figueres mother, Morales is the fifth of nine siblings. He liked to cook from a very young age. He studied hotel management at the old school in the Sant Narcís neighborhood of Girona and has done it all in the restaurant industry, from being hired by a Michelin-starred restaurant to joining a sailboat or working as a chef in a hat shop. At 25, he decided to turn his life around and studied environmental science at the UdG. He has always been a bit of a wanderer. He has traveled extensively in South America and settled for a year in Costa Rica. Then he became part of the troupes that travel through medieval markets making artisanal bread. There he fell in love with the Flautaberna, the wooden cart that is still the base of operations for his first and only personal project, which, once acquired, he renamed La Carreta del Ter.

A personal project on the banks of the TerHis dream began to roll in the Ter park in Colomers, by the riverbank, in 2019, in a place where there was a permanent beach bar (La Llúdriga) that had to leave because the Catalan Water Agency only allows mobile installations in flood-prone areas. There, with the support of the artist Rafael Feliu, the project began to take shape and grow. Later, the Angolan artist Antognioni Brunhoso also added cane decorations, applying a concept that Morales defines as "art in motion" and that brings together people who "contribute ideas, knowledge, and materials." His brother Pau Morales, a painter and musician, also lent him a hand. La Carreta del Ter decided to move to Bordils when the Colomers City Council told them they would have to share space with three more food trucks, and Morales thought the essence of his project would be lost.

Kitchen with stage viewsIt takes about 20 days to assemble all the structure of reeds, wood, and canvas that makes up La Carreta del Ter. Morales lives in his caravan throughout the season. The customers' gazes converge on the stage, where concerts are programmed on weekends and jam sessions on Wednesdays (from Sant Joan onwards). The chef has placed the musicians right in front of the window where he cooks, so the public can enjoy the double spectacle of the performers and a multitasking chef capable of dancing to the rhythm of the music while preparing succulent Peruvian dishes, such as causa a la limeña (a tribute to his father) or his famous burritos. The star dish of the travelling eatery is the beef cheek burrito, which he roasts with a slow wine reduction to achieve tender meat worthy of the finest restaurant. "We peel the potatoes for the bravas one by one and nothing processed enters here, everything is fresh, natural, and local," he assures. You can also taste artisan beers and local wines.

The concerts operate on a pay-what-you-want basis and the quality of the Wednesday jam sessions is noteworthy. "We program them on the day musicians don't usually have gigs because they like to come here to play. I always try to treat them very well because we need to support live music," explains Morales.