The Manresa brothers, Carlos (Barceloneta, 1958) and Òscar (Barceloneta, 1962), know the neighborhood where the Altamar restaurant is located very well. They were born and raised there. in Barceloneta, on the Paseo Nacional, as they and many neighbors call it, on the Paseo de Borbó.When the opportunity arose to run the Altamar restaurant, they jumped at the chance. "It has the best panoramic view of Barcelona from the sea," they say, pointing from the windows, which also overlook the swimming pools of the Club Natació Atlètic-Barceloneta. It's certainly hard to argue with that. The restaurant is located at the top of the seventy-meter tower from which the red cable car cabins depart, connecting Barceloneta with Montjuïc. To get there, you have to take an elevator that slowly ascends the hillside. The restaurant's entrance is just a few steps beyond where the cable car departs, crossing the sea and arriving in ten minutes at the other end of the city.

Around Deltebre, the rice fields create a mosaic of water and mud. The river meanders between canals and banks, and the Delta's light floods everything with a metallic sheen. It is in one of these wetlands that a unique rice variety is born: the only long-grain, aromatic rice cultivated in the Ebro Delta, known as Essència del Delta. It is grown, managed, and marketed by the Women Rice Growers of the Ebro Delta, a cooperative of five women who have made the land their livelihood. The result is a fine, fluffy, and versatile rice—perfect for salads, stir-fries, and celebratory rice dishes—but also a product imbued with values: respect for the environment, a deep connection to the land, pride in being women who preserve the craft, and the dedication that rice cultivation entails.

While the Fantastic Film Festival brings the biggest new films to the screen, Sitges restaurants are also preparing scripts to tell the tale of local cuisine. The production is so extensive that a concise selection can serve as a basic map. And if none of the 10 proposals convince you, the festival installs some food trucks available to attendees.

Today's recommendation has been one of the discoveries of the year. For me, of course. In Valencia, the value of this restaurant is no secret. I'll give you the context. I was visiting La Terreta and asked a friend who's from there to take me to a 100% Valencian place where they served good food. And he was so right that it could become one of my regular spots if I were just a monkey closer. It's Ca Pepico, located in l'Horta Nord.

We are in Cambrils, a town with a very high gastronomic standard. For example, there is the restaurant Hiu, by Sergi Palacín, which comes from one of the most reputable restaurants in Bangkok. Or Can Bosch, which has had a Michelin star for forty years (forty, eh!). And of the many places I could recommend, today we'll stop at the Sea dog

The planting and harvesting of rice are moments of effort but also of celebration, when the rice harvest season begins and ends for the rice cooperatives of the Ebro Delta. For years, farmers have festively and communally shared the culmination of a year's work. Therefore, this year, the Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) and the cooperatives Arroceros del Delta del Ebro and Cámara Arrocera del Montsià, in synergy with the local municipalities, are opening the festivities commemorating the rice harvest worldwide and launching the Ruta de la Sega (Rice Harvest Route).

Cruix is the go-to restaurant in Barcelona for good rice dishes; everyone knows this, and it's no prophecy. I interview Valencian chef Miquel Pardo (Onda, 1989) one afternoon, just before service begins, and he tells me he's having a very busy few weeks because he's opening a new Cruix on Calle Mallorca, but he still has work to do and probably won't open until September. He's also decided to adapt to customer demand, which is to lower the prices of his menus. After the pandemic, people suggested very exclusive dishes with expensive ingredients. Now, he says, that's no longer the case. So, of the three menus he offers, priced at €43, €56, and €72, he'll reduce them to €39 (the first) and €69 (the third). And he has yet another new dish, his own onion soup with Tête de Moine AOP cheese, which won the Cheese Chef's Challenge held in Barcelona last March.

As its name suggests, Arròs9's main offering is signature rice dishes, as well as traditional Catalan cuisine. They make a dozen rice dishes, including brothy, creamy, and dry rice dishes, with meat, fish, and vegetables. One of the secrets to the excellent quality of their rice dishes is the sofrito, which they cook over low heat until the onions are perfectly caramelized. Another is that they use quality products such as acorn-fed duck (from Ànec 5 Aglans), an organic duck raised in Lluçanès, and Isla de Río rice from the Ebro Delta. They also have a lobster and crayfish tank to serve the freshest products possible.

Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries will launch a first auction of 150,000 tonnes of government-stored rice on March 10. The product is expected to go on sale in supermarkets and other retail stores by the end of the month. According to Japan’s public broadcaster NHK, the government has decided to release 210,000 tonnes of rice – or 2.9 billion 65-gram bowls of the grain that is polished before cooking – to solve the distribution problem and lower the price.