Smoothies, brains and cojones — 5 reasons you can’t miss Barcelona’s Boqueria Market
In an age where shopping for daily necessities has become a sterile chore in cloned hypermarkets filled with trolley-pushing zombies, it’s always refreshing to pay a visit to markets that feel like the beating heart of a living, breathing community (there’s a word I miss). If you find yourself on a short visit to Barcelona, and want an all-round taste of what makes the city special, put a trip to the Mercat de la Boqueria at the top of your list.
1. It’s the city’s main market
Okay, sounds obvious really, but I’m amazed by how many people I’ve met that have been to Barcelona and not set foot inside the Mercat de la Boqueria. This applies, in my experience, worldwide *; if you want to get a quick, intense introduction to any city or town, seek out the place where the locals go about their daily business. It’ll wake up all of your senses to the fact that you’re somewhere new.
(* Among my favourite markets around the world are Seoul’s Namdaemun, Vienna’s Naschmarkt and the Central Market in Budapest)
2. Cured meats
If you’re a fan of serrano, chorizo and the like (and I am), this place is heaven on earth. You’re greeted right inside the entrance by a display of enticing legs (see left) that put the Moulin Rouge in the ha’penny place. It was all of 30 minutes since I’d had breakfast, but the smells had me dying to sample whatever I could get my grubby paws on. Further inside, the meat counters all had plenty of ready-wrapped hunks of flesh at very reasonable prices.
3. The healthy option
More fresh fruit and vegetables than you can shake a juicer at. The displays alone are worth the trip — multicoloured mounds of produce that appear to defy the laws of engineering.
It might be quicker to list the fruits they don’t have than those they have, except I can’t name one. Along with the obvious locally produced oranges, limes and figs, there are stalls specialising in imported delicacies such as mangosteens, dragon fruit and fragrant (!) durians.
Special mention has to go to the fruit smoothies. There are dozens of flavours; we went for coconut & strawberry and coconut & kiwi fruit, both of which were delicious. They’re available in several parts of the market, but we found the ones nearest the entrance more expensive. The stall we got them at, near the centre of the market, charged just €1.
4. A cast of millions
Forget parking yourself at a pavement cafe, where you’re limited to a human conveyor belt (there’s only so long you can watch the same wino dribble down his gansy, or the same pigeons pick through the same piece of dog-poo); markets are where it’s at for people-watching.
We liked the fruit merchant with the friendly multilingual sales patter, and were momentarily distracted wondering how Sebastien Chabal made it back from Dublin so quickly. But our favourite was definitely the gent who brought his Alsatian along to help get the meat. The canine knew what he wanted, and spent a good while softening the heart of the butcher, who, in fairness, never seemed to tire of tossing Fido some choice offcuts.
5. Bazaar bizarre
The meat counters alone are enough to provide some puzzlement. Surveying an assortment of sheep-heads, brains and sundry offal, I spotted what I took to be the local equivalent of haggis. I decided to check anyway and asked the butcher. We had no language in common, and after a few vain attempts at guessing what the Catalan or Spanish for haggis might be, I pointed at my stomach, raising my eyebrows like a quizzical Roger Moore.
The reply was an instantly recognisable cupping of the hand, accompanied by that phrase so beloved of Hemingway – “los cojones”.
“Ah,” I nodded knowingly as I slunk away thanking my lucky stars I hadn’t asked the lady at the counter where I first spotted the impressively-proportioned magairlí.
Oh, and yes, I later looked up ‘ternero’ and found out it meant ‘calf’ – I then spent several minutes trying to shut out of my mind what the adult version must look like.
Further along was what appeared to be a bog-standard egg stall — except that bog-standard doesn’t normally include emu eggs at €18 euro a pop (try fitting that one in a jumbo breakfast roll).
Add the fish stalls with creatures that look like extras edited from The X-Files for being too weird, and you have enough WTF moments for one morning.
[geo_mashup_show_on_map_link]
February 9, 2009 11:52 pm 
