Can a dish be cheerful? Or sad? The Quotidians were solving this dilemma when we read that the Pinotxo Bar has been awarded with the City of Barcelona 2015 Gastronomy Award. We reset to celebration mood (again?) and prepare chapter two in our series about food stalls in markets and their best dishes. In this episode, a cult classic: the Pinotxo Bar in the Mercat de la Boquería. The quotidian cooks are paying a visit to Joan Bayén, “Juanito”, the venue’s owner and soul, to devour a dish of scrambled eggs with clams and a glass of cava.
We don’t mind to wait to be seated in front of his command post by the coffee maker. In the meantime we make a quick scan through the counter to see what the market has to offer today. Pinotxo’s star dishes are cuttle fish with beans from Santa Pau, callos (silky tripe stew), cap i pota (beef’s head and feet), and the fresh products from the sea: razor-clams, local varieties of clams, shrimps… depending on season because we are seating in the middle of a vibrant market! Today we are lucky, in the specials we have a wok of scrambled eggs with clams. We tell ourselves: Let’s post it in The Quotidian Cook.
The Pinotxo’s kitchen has the ingredients we seek in natural cooking: proximity and freshness of food, dishes with cultural roots, simple recipes with very few ingredients, clean flavour of food and joy, a lot of joy.
We think that food deserves more joy. Many times, healthy food dishes neglect the pleasure of eating. We can improve a lot a dish with an appealing presentation, but it is more effective to visualize the result from the beginning: the cutting and size of ingredients, the accents we are going to include (herbs, spices), the harmony of colours, the cooking time of pieces and, of course, plating… which includes the plate, let’s not forget.
In today’s recipe we have a nice example of joyful dish, simple and delicious. The recipe’s spark is the fruit from this man’s joviality, who has been opening his bar at 6 in the morning for 75 years to be in charge of the business. It is admirable. Thanks to him, going to Pinotxo is a feast.
- 400 g of clams
- 4 organic eggs
- Garlic and parsley
- ¼ glass of dry white wine
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Rinse and cover the clams with water and salt some hours before so they expel the sand
- Strain the clams and wash them again under running water in order to remove any remaining sand
- Mince the garlic and parsley
- Whisk slightly the 4 eggs, without combining too much the yolk and the white
- Put a casserole or wok over high heat
- Add a dash of oil and put the clams in
- Add the minced garlic and parsley and stir slightly
- Add the white wine and stir for some minutes, very few, until the clams open
- If there is too much liquid, pour it before adding the egg
- Once open, add the partly-whisked egg and continue stirring until it sets to taste
- Remove from heat and serve
The wine is optional. You can add the same quantity in water, depending on the water expelled by the clams, in which case there is no need to add more water.
Toni and Javi are active daily cooks who explore the beauty of natural cooking. Our mission is to bring flavor and excellence to healthy eating! 
You should disclose that this is not the actual recipe at pinoxto
Hey Jamie, thanks for your comment! In fact, Juanito Bayes, the owner of Pinotxo gave us the recipe when we visited him and asked him to prepare it for us. He keeps on improving his recipes and does not stick to a recipe book… That’s why you probably found another version. Cheers!