La Boqueria, Barcelona

One of the great advantages of having an apartment was getting to shop at La Boqueria, Barcelona's huge covered market. We had heard about it, but we found it almost by accident. We woke up early our first day in town and decided to go out to pick up coffee and a few items to stock the fridge. Our landlord had told us where to find a little grocery store nearby. Didn't find it.











We wandered through el Barri Gotic till we got to La Rambla, where there just had to be a store ...

We followed a stream of people down an alley ... ...and found ourselves in La Boqueria, an active market since 1701.

La Boqueria is a huge space crammed with tables and stands and open stores selling everything good to eat: cheese, chocolates, divine flaky pastries filled with chocolate, long braids of sesame bread, meat from rib roasts to goat heads to feet of who knows what -- my cook's heart wanted to take home a bunch of bones to start a pot of soup. Chickens, seafood, mountains of spices, a dozen kinds of mushrooms, beautifully arranged fruits and vegetables, prepared foods, everything beautiful and fragrant and vying for my attention.

With huge self-control we managed to spend only 20 euros and not buy more than we could carry: eggs, butter (a choice of French, Spanish or Swiss, salted or unsalted, offered in various sizes and containers), potatoes, Spanish olive oil and jerez vinegar, coffee, pastries, fruit, a bit of cheese, just enough to start the day and stock our new apartment a bit.

The market was packed, it was practically impossible to get down the aisles. The variety of products offered was overwhelming -- and I wanted everything. I heard vendors speaking mainly Spanish and Catalan, with bits of English and French. Fortunately, they also spoke sign language. That was great, since my pre-coffee brain was having trouble getting around simple phrases like "mas poqueno."

We went back several times that day and over the rest of the week. In addition to bread and cheese and garlic and wine and pastries and fresh veg for salad and fruit and tapas supplies, over the next few days we feasted at home on rib roast, tuna and salmon steaks, anointed with fragrant Spanish oil, fresh herbs and garlic. Yum!

Oh, the little grocery the landlord mentioned was about 90 seconds away from our apartment and would have required a left turn out the front door instead of the left turn we took at the end of our street, just steps from the aforementioned door. The mini-mercado was nothing special, an ok place to buy paper towels and the like. I wouldn't have missed that first glimpse of La Boqueria for the world.

(BTW, Saveur magazine's June/July issue features markets around the world, including a nice spread on La Boqueria. The mag's website has a recipe from Bar Pinotxo, the tapas place in the market, which our landlord recommended. We never managed to eat there. If only every day had 29 hours and I had an even more robust appetite!)