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Includes Catalan recipes and food Titledictionaries! Foreverbarcelona.com Over1 50 market stalls reviewed! © 2012. Marta Laurent Veciana Foreverbarcelona.com All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanic photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission of the author. Texts & Photographs: Marta Laurent Veciana Design: Jane Ashley @ nathalielussier.com All Boqueria maps are based on the one provided at the market website. ISBN: 978-84-615-7810-8 Legal Deposit: B-13343-2012 Barcelona, Spain With special thanks to the inhabitants of the market: vendors, owners, waiters and other, who have accepted and welcomed me and my guests, collaborating with me in my tours showing us their produce and answering our questions. Thank you for opening up and developing this friendship relationship with me over the years. I also want to thank Jane Ashley and Nathalie Lussier and her team, without whom this book wouldn’t have been possible. – Marta table of contents ABOUT THE AUTHOR 4 THE RIGHT HAND SIDE OF THE MARKET 26 The inner alleys 27 The outer alleys 31 INTRODUCTION 5 GLOSSARY 36 How to use it 36 MARKET INFO 6 Fruit and berries 38 How to get there 6 Veggies and greens 39 When to come 6 Nuts and sweets 40 Meat and poultry 41 Cold cuts, ham and meat preparations 42 A LITTLE BIT OF HISTORY TO START... 7 Fish 43 Seafood and shells 44 Cheese and dairy 45 THE CENTRAL ALLEY AND THE FISH SECTION 8 Beans and similar 46 Main entrance 8 Spices, herbs and seasonings 47 Central Alley 9 The end of the central alley 12 MARKET RECIPE INDEX 48 THE LEFT HAND SIDE OF THE MARKET 14 The bottom-left area 14 The front-left area 19 about the author Marta Laurent is a real Barcelona local, She knows all the secrets of the local born in 1976. markets, specially the famous Boqueria, and loves unveiling them for her guests. After finishing her Translation university She can also take you visiting the best degree in the UAB, she spent a year food stores around the city: her favorite traveling to reinforce her language epicurean itinerary around the Old Town skills and came back to Barcelona to includes a selection of gorgeous ancient start working as a protocol tourguide food shops as well as modern specialty in the Sagrada Familia church, Gaudí’s stores. She also does great tapas tour to masterpiece. In 2000 she passed introduce you to the local cooking and her exams to become an official make you experience the local real life. licensed tour guide for Catalonia and Barcelona, and in 2002 she started her In 2009 she spent 2.5 days with the own business as a fulltime freelance journalists of Jamie’s Magazine, the tourguide: Foreverbarcelona.com. monthly publication by the leading chef Jamie Oliver, for a story on the Barcelona Marta has always been a foody: she Tapas Bars. has taken many cooking courses and is delighted to share her pride and She has also worked for the renowned knowledge on the Catalan gastronomy. food journalists Elise Meyer, who This is why she was one of the first mentions Marta on her popular blog Barcelona tourguides to start offering Much Ado About Stuffing. gourmet tours: 4 introduction The Boqueria is the oldest food market in • Feel free to stop and look, but make Barcelona and the largest in Spain. A stroll sure to leave enough room for locals around its alleys is a feast for your senses: can shop comfortably while you are the colors, the smells, the displays, the admiring the products. market sounds, the voices of the vendors • Feel free to take pictures, but don’t inviting you to buy… The mix of local get the faces of the sellers: they don’t produce with exotic ones is so fascinating, like it. that you’d want to stay forever exploring it! • Feel free to buy, but don’t touch the I’ve been coming to this place almost food: let the vendor choose it for you. every week for many years, and I’m still • Do not eat anything you haven’t discovering new things! I’ve developed a bought yet, unless the seller has relationship of trust and respect with many invited you to taste it. While in some of the people working there, and I’m proud countries it is normal to grab a piece to take my guests around, introducing (olive, chocolate, nut…) to try it before them to the market secrets. Because there buying, here it is considered very rude is so much you can miss if you go on your to do so. own! • The alleys are narrow: give priority to the locals who are busy doing In this book I want to share my favorite their shopping. If anyone complains stalls with you, so you can also enjoy the (it’s likely to be an old lady pulling a experience to the most! trolley), politely apologize with a smile. Here are some important recommen- • Some food might look very different dations in order to mix in well with the from what you are used to: be Boqueria inhabitants and be welcomed by respectful and don’t laugh at it nor them: scream making faces. The vendors are very proud of their products and might be offended by this kind of attitude. It is all common sense, isn’t it? Great! Now you are ready to explore the Boqueria and be amazed by it! 5 marKet info Official name: Does it mean it’s ok to come anytime? Mercat de Sant Josep (check the chapter on the market history to see why we call it Boqueria • COME IN THE MORNING. Even if it’s open instead!) until the evening, the truth is many stalls start closing after lunch. Make sure to plan Phone: your visit for the morning or at least no later +34 933 182584 than 3pm if you want to experience the market at its peak activity. Website: • AVOID MONDAYS. Since on Sunday most http://www.boqueria.info fishermen didn’t work, on Monday the fish section is only partially open and that affects the activity of the rest of the market, How TO GET THERE specially the shops at the botton. If you can , plan your visit for other days. This also Address: applies for any day after a local holyday. La Rambla 91, 08002 Barcelona • AUGUST. Unfortunately, there is little you can do if you can’t travel any other time... But Closest subway station: in any case, I must warn you that in August Liceu (L3 – green line) many stalls are closed for holydays. WHEN TO coME Opening hours: Monday to Saturday, from 8am to 8.30pm. Closed on Sunday and local bank holydays. 6 A LITTLE BIT OF HISTORY TO START... In the old times, back to the Middle Finally, in 1835 the Convent of St. Joseph tourists with delicious fresh juices, Ages, la Rambla was a dry river bed that was burnt during some anticlerical conveniently packed fruit salads, cheese flooded when it rained. However, since protests. The city council decided and ham skewers and all kind of small it didn’t rain so often, it kept dry for most to expropriate the ruins and open a tasting portions to go. of the year. For safety reasons the area arcaded plaza, but in the end the plans wasn’t developed, and along it were built changed and the market occupied the The people working in the market is also the medieval city walls. area instead. changing. While in many cases the stalls That’s why the official name of La have been owned by the same family This free space available near the city Boqueria is “Mercat de Sant Josep”! for generations, nowadays we see how gates became a convenient location often the young locals don’t wish to keep for farmer markets, that have been The first stone was laid in 1840 on the family business as they consider documented to be there since the early St. Joseph’s Day, March 19th. Several the life in the market is too tough: long Medieval markets by the city walls along La Rambla XIII century when meat stalls used to gold coins were buried underneath to working hours, very early morning occupy the area and were soon joined symbolize the wealth the market was starts… And it’s immigrants who are by other kind of produce vendors. called to generate. However, it remained taking over instead, either selling local It looks like the meat sold there was that outdoors until 1914 when the current produce while also introducing other of male goat, “boc” in Catalan, hence the metallic cover was built to protect the items that had been considered “exotic” origin of the name of the market. market from the weather conditions, in our country until very recently (i.e. following the trend of the Iron dragon fruit, papaya, mango, cilantro…), Little by little, la Rambla started Architecture style that came from Paris. or opening ethnic ready-made food concentrating the different markets stands. that were celebrated in the Old Town. La Boqueria has evolved with the city. The space was limited, and started After the 1992 Olympics, Barcelona The market has also increased its social becoming more and more apparent that became a main tourist destination. The activity and presence, participating in all those vendors needed to be moved market stalls have been restored and local and international fairs and events, somewhere else.