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It's a well-known fact that Catalans are food-obsessed. Cargols (snails) make them swoon, bolets (wild mushrooms) make them quiver and embotits (sausages and cold cuts) make them tingle all over.

But what really sends them into rapture is a little onion called a calçot.

Thought to have been invented by a peasant farmer from the Valls region in the 19th century, the calçot is a type of spring onion that takes its name from the way in which it is grown.

In order to lengthen the edible white portion of the onion, farmers mound earth around it, a practice known as calçar — to put on shoes — hence calçot.

Calçotades, feasts at which the humble calçot is the star attraction, are held all over Catalonia from midwinter to early spring. However, the region of Tarragona and particularly the tiny town of Valls (an hour and a half outside of Barcelona) are the cradle of the custom.

Calçotades are boisterous affairs that see family and friends gather at a country home for a day of eating, drinking and socializing.

"They're really an excuse for everyone to get together," says Jordi Fernández Roig, a native of Tarragona and a long-time aficionado of the calçotada tradition.

At Fernández Roig's calçotada, guests pitch in to prepare the meal: Calçots are trimmed and laid out on large racks, char-grilled in batches over a small bonfire, wrapped in newspapers to keep warm and then served in traditional clay roof tiles, whose shape fits the long onions perfectly. The coals that remain after grilling the calçots are used to prepare the roasted meats and sausages served as the second course.

Eating is gloriously messy, but there is a protocol to the act.

First, you slide off the charred outer coating of the calçot with one hand, holding on to the green ends with the other.

Then, you dip the newly uncovered pearly white end into salvitxada or romesco sauce, traditional sauces that indispensably accompany calçots.

Finally, you tilt your head back and lower the dangling calçots into your mouth, biting off the white portion and discarding the ends. The flavour is rich, creamy and beguilingly sweet.

Throughout, local wine flows freely from traditional porrons, decanters with a drinking spout designed for sharing; in a feat of co-ordination, wine is poured in a thin stream directly from the spout into the mouth without touching the lips.

While some consider large bibs essential to the whole experience, Fernández Roig discards the custom as one designed for "city folk."

Calçotades are still most often put on at private homes; however, many restaurants serve calçotada menus to cater to city dwellers clamouring to get in on the action.

The most popular spots to experience calçotades are masies, large rural estates that have been converted into restaurants. There, calçots are more likely to be grown on-site and grilled over outdoor fires in the traditional manner.

Special to The Globe and Mail

Pack your bags:

Where to eat:

Restaurant Masia Bou
Carretera de Lleida
Tel. (34) 97 7 60 04 27
www.masiabou.com

(Large masia with a typical calcotada an hour and a half outside of Barcelona by car; reservations recommended.)

Restaurant Masia Can Borrell
Carretera d'Horta a Cerdanyola
Sant Cugat del Vallès
Tel. (34) 93 692 97 23 or 93 691 06 05
www.can-borrell.com
(Beautifully set in the park of Collserolla, this masia can be accessed by taking the train from Barcelona to the nearby San Cugat and hiking through the park to reach the restaurant; reservations recommended.)