I'm looking for a good menu transaltor for Barcelona. Are most menus in Catalan and Spanish? If I get a Marling Menu Master, it will have to be purhcased on-line, and I haven't found a description of the book that tells me whether it includes Catalan translations. Does anybody know?

I have one and Catalan is what I needed in Buenos Aires, but it still worked for us.
I can go look at it and let you know if you need more info.

Most menus in Barcelona are in Catalan, which can be difficult, but if you ask, they'll try to explain the dish in Castilian.

That's pretty funny, since my Texas Spanish is horrible.

Good question! From the restaurants I've looked up online, they do have the (online, anyway) menus in Catalan and Castilian, but I'm not so sure that's always the case, especially in more casual restaurants.

I've already bought a Spanish Marling menu-master, and it doesn't seem to include Catalan dishes (or dishes in Catalan). In fact, it doesn't have a "tapas" section either, which is a bit annoying.

Being my usual anal foodie self, for our May trip to Barcelona, I've already started making a list of Catalan dishes (and some food items), compiled from whenever I see a particular Catalan dish mentioned in a restaurant review, and from a Barcelona cookbook that I got for Christmas. Mostly to make sure I don't miss out on any dishes that I want to try! If you'd like a copy of the list, I'd be happy to email it to you.

My Marling for Spain , that I bought a few months ago, has a one page section on Tapas, but not very helpful , I would imagine.
But the translations worked for us..

Most restaurants have menus in both Spanish and Catalan. Many have english as well.

Hello, Lexma

I, too, am a foodie with only a ridiculously elementary knowledge of dishes in their native language. I would love to get a copy. Are you suggesting e-mail or snail.

JP