Get a Kick Out of Cans

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Spaniards have two other passions besides football and fiestas, and that would be tapas and tinned goods. No nation on earth is as enthusiastic about preserved food, and one bar in Barcelona has raised tapas from a can to a modern art form. At Quimet i Quimet, all of the food is preserved in one way or another, but if you're envisioning Spam, you're in for a surprise. Producers like Ramón Peña and Paco Lafuente put out a high-quality product, canning everything from octopus to tuna belly. Some of their top tins can cost as much as $54 for almost as many clams. However, just because the ingredients are canned doesn't mean the food isn't wonderfully creative and fresh.

Brother-and-sister team Joana and Joaquim (Quim) Perez Sanz are the fifth generation to man the bar since it was founded in 1914.

Elbow your way to a space at the narrow standing-room-only counter, then prepare for a preserved feast in miniature: maybe a roll topped with artisanal canned mussels and the sweetest diced tomatoes with a dollop of caviar, or rillettes of goose confit with caramelized onions and truffle oil, followed by house-marinated anchovies with sun-dried tomato and a delicate green tapenade of salt-cured capers. Even the most unlikely combinations work, like flatbread spread with yogurt on which is piled thinly sliced smoked salmon anointed with soy sauce and truffle honey.

There is no menu, and the baristas improvise like jazz musicians, creating mind-blowing harmonies with their ingredients. The only way to check out the wine and cava is by scanning the bottles that line the walls. The collection is impressive — wine being, after all, preserved grape juice, the most spectacular conserve of all. Who says fresh is best? tel: (34-93) 442 31 42