Saturday, September 14, 2013

Market Days


 You can’t hardly go to a country like Spain and not visit the very place that sells all the food you’ve been eating, right?


Ham Ham Ham...
When I heard that Barcelona had “markets”, those establishments that to us in the States are “farmer’s markets” or “bizarres”, I was all about headed there to see the glory that is food.  And boy I was not disappointed!!

Fresh Seafood...

Rows after rows after rows of ham, cheese, nuts, fruits, meats, cheese, ham, ham, ham…there must have been 3 football fields of food stands in this market.  And they were so elaborate and displayed so beautifully!  You can tell this is a business that the people take a certain amount of pride in.  There are shops where you can purchase ham by the slice or by the pound, stations where you can get your fresh meat, chicken and rabbit, stations that sell fresh fruit smoothies and you pick out your fruit for them to puree, and even a few booths that are set up as bars so you can sit and eat/drink in the marketplace.



And so, just to make sure we weren’t rude while visiting, we decided to eat at the organic food shop.  The choices of entrees were: tacos with spicy meat (to which Todd pointed out the Spanish version of a taco is not necessarily the same definition of a Mexican taco), “crepes” (I think more closer to a tortilla) with queso fresco, empanadas, falafel, “orgasmic” paella and “orgasmic” lasagne.  Ooh, this is interesting!



We each decided on our lunch: for Todd and me, it was the crepes, for Matt, the not-so-Mexican taco, and for Steph the falafel.  We expected to get our individual piece of what we ordered and be on our way, but we were shocked to discover that in addition to our seemingly substantial piece of food, they topped each item with the evidently “as great as sex” paella, beans, salad of a sort, some sort of something with fruit mixed in, fried cheese, and a whole other bunch of stuff that while not identifiable, were actually quite tasty when all mixed together in the hodgepodge that they served us. 



But seriously, a family of four could have eaten one dish and been full for the whole day!


Anyway, after eating what we could and drinking it with a glass of Cava (the Spanish equivalent to French Champagne), we continued on to look through the market.  And we came upon a ham shop that sells “ham chips”.  Ham chips?  Interesting!  Despite my overfilled tummy, I could not turn down a chance to eat some more delicious Iberican ham.  So I went with my little 1 euro and purchase a cup of ham chips (ham sliced so thin it comes out in small pieces, thereby calling them “chips”).  And they were delicious! 



And so, with our oogling at the fresh food laid out before us at an end, we ventured on to discover more of what Barcelona has to offer outside the realm of food.  But I will say that the Barcelona market is definitely one to be envied; and I hope we can someday find another one as tasty as this.

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