The most popular mercat for tourists to visit is centrally located on Las Ramblas. Its name - Mercat de Sant Josep de la Boqueria - is more commonly abbreviated to La Boqueria and it's located not far from the Liceu Metro station on the L3 line.
Click images to see sharper, bigger ones
Wandering through the aisles brings the realisation that there isn't much in the way of fresh produce that isn't sold here. Interspersed with café bars selling delicious food, the market is divided into sections.
The main entrance is lined with fruit and vegetable stores; their produce stacked high in beautiful displays that must take some skill to build. Fresh fruit juices of all kinds can be bought and sipped on as you wander deeper into the market.
Dried fruit, nuts and sweets are mixed into the fruit and vegetable section, and the amount of available produce is astounding. It all looks really delicious, but there are so many choices that I can never make a decision about what to buy.
The fish section is loud, large, wet and full of all kinds of intriguing seafood. Lots of shellfish and so many different types of shrimps and prawns are stacked on ice together with octopus, squid, and scale fish. Look, but don't touch unless you're intending to buy!
The meat area is full of little shops offering fresh meat as well as processed varieties. Jamón Ibérico and lots of other choices hang from racks waiting to be bought.
There are even shops which specialise in selling offal - and other delicacies!
In the poultry section, there's a shop which sells all kinds of eggs including ostrich and emu.
On our first visit to Barcelona in January, we stopped at one of the market's cafés for a bite to eat. Finding a seat can be a challenge, but it's worth the hassle for a taste of some of the best food (and at a reasonable cost) that Barcelona has to offer. Just remember to keep all your belongings in front of you on your lap, as theft can happen quite quickly when you are distracted by the lovely food and all the activity behind the counters!
We take our guests into La Boqueria so that they can get a sense of what the market is all about. Of course, I love to wander around to take photos.
We do advise that you go early as the crowds start to build during the day, and at times it can be quite difficult to struggle through the masses to look at everything. Plus, some of the stalls do close between 1pm and 4pm for the traditional siesta time.
We have local mercats that are much closer to where we live. When we explore these, we'll also share what we find on this blog!
7 comments:
I would lurrrve to do my shopping in a place like that hon! There's just sooo much charachter about it & i bet if you're a regular, you'd get to know the traders & their 'stories'.
So much more appealing than an Abu Dhabi Co-op or Lulu store!
Awesome market,great photos.I would love to eat my way through it and spend forever photographing the people and the produce.Glad you photograph your meals before you eat them it's a wonderful way to relieve the experience.
Rule #1 - never visit there when hungry. (But do take a camera.)
So – if a market is called a mercat – what is a meercat called :)
Jayne: It's awesome! We're looking forward to going to some of our local mercats when the weather gets cooler! Co-op and Lulu have nothing on these places!
JR: thanks and welcome to our blog. Good food should be recorded for posterity and the memories!
PandaB: you're correct. My mouth drools at some of the food, so the camera comes in pretty handy at hiding it!
Oman: welcome to our blog. Do you know how much we love Oman? :-) AFAIK, a meercat is a meercat in Spanish too!
Hey, great series. La Boqueria in all its splendor. Colorful and contrasty. Nice work.
Thank you Carlos, and welcome to our blog. I have learned so much about Barcelona and Catalunya from visiting your blog!
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