Feeld Organic, Grocery & Cafe, Eixample

FEELD ORGANIC HAS CLOSED DOWN.

There is a great new eating guide for Barcelona written by some Spanish folks: The Ultimate Barcelona Foodie Guide. €8 gets you 50 addresses with concise entries in Spanish and English. With neat icons and familiar hashtags to help you navigate. (The only conspicuous absence is a map of some sort or an index by neighbourhood.)

I found Feeld Organic using T.U.B.F.G. An organic grocers-cum-café/canteen on the part of Av. Diagonal that seems to perpetually choke on traffic (the endless road works aren’t helping). The light and space make me think of how Whole Foods might have started out.

With my lunch date imminent I decide on coffee (Saula Organic) and because I don’t want chia pudding, carrot sticks or flavoured yogurt – even if it is organic – I opt for cake. I can choose between carrot, courgette or…spriulina.
“Spirulina?”
“Yes, do you know what Spirulina is?” I am asked by the server in a checked shirt.
“Ah ya – it’s green and good for you.” I mumble. I think people from the blue zone of Loma Linda put it in their kale smoothies because its full of phytoestrogens.

I order it because how can I not? Order such an obnoxiously virtuous sounding cake, pandering to our desire to live longer? I fully expect to hate it and am preparing to nudge the offensive green slice to one side and give an audible “humpf” but I like it. It’s a freshly baked cake, not too sweet, tender – beautiful crumb and the spirulina tends to work a lot like turmeric adding plenty of colour but not much in the way of taste.

Time for a nosy peak around the grocery store. It’s similar to most organic shops in town (of which Veritas is the most prevalent). There is a strong emphasis on non-perishable goods (understandable). Lots of dehydrated seaweed. A good selection (in price and format) of coconut oil (the price of the one at Veritas takes my breath away). Their fruit and vegetable display is very strong, the stuff is fresh, with taut skin, crisp leaves and I am told a lot of it is local. They also have a fish counter (a first for an organic store here) and a meat / poultry counter. I scour the dried fruit shelves for currants and cherries which I’ve been on the look out for weeks. Nada. Just raisins and prunes like always. Then I ask after a cider vinegar ‘with the mother’ and am met by a blank stare then escorted to a shelf with a handful of flavoured vinegars.

It’s not exhaustive in the way say Casa Perris (not organic but amazing) is with frutos secos but it’s certainly pretty and needed in this city.

The people who are manning the check out and filling the shelves all have gorgeous skin and thick glossy hair that makes me want to reach out and grab handfuls of it – just to feel its weight. They are the human equivalent of a bushel of freshly harvested apples, shiny and fresh. If I were to take a bite out of one of them, the crunch would be heard down in Barceloneta.

I won’t be biting any Feeld Organic staff today I decide. I may come back and try their lunch menu from €9.50 to €14.50 in the canteen upstairs.

See this and find more addresses on my Foodie in Barcelona Map

Feeld Organic
Avinguda Diagonal, 449
08036 Eixample
feeldorganic.com
www.facebook.com/feeldorganic