We always love drawing inspiration for new recipes from our travels. This Christmas we decided to recreate some of the best dishes we’ve been lucky to try across some of the world’s best restaurants. We had Beef Wellington inspired by a meal at Eleven Madison Park, a delicious risotto inspired by a dish at Osteria Francescana, and this tasty little bite – a smoked salmon and truffle crostini. It’s inspired by one of the cheapest, no-fuss, but incredibly memorable meals at a tiny tapas bar in Barcelona, Quimet i Quimet.

Quimet i Quimet

A tiny and unassuming hole in the wall, this tapas restaurant is on a quiet street in the Montjuic neighborhood of Barcelona away from the chaos of Las Ramblas. We’d watched an episode of Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations where he visited this tiny establishment and after watching, we knew we’d have to add it to our list of places to check out. We had a fabulous meal at a Michelin starred restaurant the night before this meal, but somehow, this meal outshined it.

With only a few bar stools and some scattered high-top tables, the restaurant may have been the smallest restaurant we visited our whole trip. We squeezed in with, amazingly, probably about 40 other people. We reviewed the extensive menu of montaditos, tapas, and small plates and ordered along with a glass of their home-brewed beer. Everyone seemed to be ordering this salmon toast, so we decided we had to have it. We ordered a second and then a third. We were blown away. Creamy yogurt, smoked salmon, and lather of black truffle honey somehow all came together to form the perfect bite. The owner, from memory, quickly wrote down our bill by hand. He got everything correct, by the way. We spent about 30 euros for this fabulous meal. And we always talk about how great that salmon toast was.

The Ingredients

The components of this crostini are fairly simple – smoked salmon, whole milk greek yogurt, french bread, and truffle honey. We never would have thought to combine these ingredients were it not for that meal in Barcelona. Somehow it all works! We were able to find a delicious smoked salmon at Central Market here in Dallas. We recommend Norwegian smoked salmon, it has a milder taste. As for the truffle honey – you can find different specialty markets that sell truffle infused honey. They do sell some at Central Market. We opted to infuse our own. We purchased some canned truffles in oil and added it to some local honey. It turned out spectacularly, so you can definitely go this route as well.

These crostinis are perfect to serve at any party or gathering or just as a tasty snack! Our families LOVED them at our Christmas dinner.