Insider's guide to... Barcelona

What's the weather like now? Early March means the worst of winter should be over. Apart from last week's cold snap, the days have been cloudy or sunny with temperatures of around 65C, and it doesn't really dip below 50F at night. With rising temperatures and little rain, this is a fine time to visit the city.

What's the weather like now? Early March means the worst of winter should be over. Apart from last week's cold snap, the days have been cloudy or sunny with temperatures of around 65C, and it doesn't really dip below 50F at night. With rising temperatures and little rain, this is a fine time to visit the city.

What are the locals complaining about? The main complaint is about "mad cow" disease, which officially appeared in Spain late last year. So far there's little danger here in Catalonia, but people nevertheless fear for their steaks. Another hot topic is illegal immigration - many folk are upset at the government's seeming inability to come up with a workable immigration policy. Last month hundreds of "illegals" took refuge in churches and began a hunger strike in order to obtain residency, and people have turned out in droves to bring them supplies and lend moral support.

Who's the talk of the town? People are talking about plans to divert the waters of the River Ebro, which flows from the Basque country through Catalonia down to Castille and Andalucia where there are chronic water shortages. To the dismay of many locals, Jordi Pujol, the president of Catalonia, supports the scheme. Thousands of people have just taken to the streets to demonstrate against the link on environmental grounds.

What's the cool drink to order? With some of the cheapest alcohol prices in the Western world, Barcelona is a drinker's paradise. For wine, Catalan vintages, like those of the Priorat and Penedés, are preferred by those in the know, and among apertifs absinthe is staging something of a comeback. Cocktail bars never really went out of fashion here, and venerable establishments such as Boadas, just off the Ramblas, continue to pack in cocktail lovers. In general, order anything but sangria, that staple of the menu turistico.

What are people eating? February is time for calçots - giant spring onions available only in late winter and early spring. They are cooked by being tossed on a bed of hot embers until the outsides blacken. To eat them, draw the slimy calçot out of its charred skin, dip it in a savoury sauce, and lower it into your mouth, doing your best to avoid getting calçot or sauce on your face or shirt. It's dirty, fun and delicious.

What's the most outrageous stuff on TV? Spain has some of the tackiest television imaginable. The most surreal show is probably Menudas Estrellas, which features five to twelve-year-old children singing and dancing pop or traditional hits with spooky similitude. Also popular are the late-night shows La Cosa Nostra and Las Crónicas Marcianas, Catalonia's and Spain's answers, respectively, to David Letterman or Graham Norton, each featuring a suitably bizarre cast of regular personalities as well as celebrity interviews.

Where wouldn't the locals dream of going? One place where you would never catch a local is sitting down for a drink at any of the street-side bar terraces which punctuate the city's famous pedestrian avenue, La Ramblas. Crowded with lager-swilling holiday hordes inexplicably wearing souvenir Mexican sombreros and happily paying over the odds for bad tapas, these are strictly the domain of fresh-off-the-bus tourists.

Where are the locals going that the tourists don't know about? Barcelona is such a popular destination that it's hard to find places which have not yet been "discovered". But in some of the peripheral neighbourhoods, such as Horta and Poble Nou, you'll find neighbourhood bars and restaurants where no foreigner has seemingly set foot. Another open secret of Barcelona is Collserola, the massive green area which almost surrounds the city. A car-free zone of cool woods, parks and picnic areas, all connected by a network of hiking and biking trails, it is a popular Saturday or Sunday stop for people who live in the city.

Where are the chic people doing their shopping? Although the huge post-Christmas sale season has just wound down, the new spring clothing bonanzas have both the chic and the hoi polloi packing the shopping zone around Plaça de Catalunya, Barcelona's great hub. The major retail novelty is the new La Maquinista shopping centre - a huge retail complex set up in a renovated locomotive factory - which has branches of all of the major Barcelona shops: including Mango, Zara and Cortefiel.

What's the trendy place to escape for the weekend? With the snowy slopes of the Pyrenees less than 80 miles to the north, people are still heading into the mountains in droves. La Molina, at between 5,600ft and 7,500ft (1,680m and 2,250m) above sea level, is a favourite, while just west, the tiny principality of Andorra offers duty-free shopping as well as skiing. Last month, £160,000 in cash was discovered unclaimed on a coach travelling from Spain to Andorra - somebody was planning on escaping for more than just a weekend.

Brian Catlos is a 'Rough Guides' author.