my life in food. en France and back again: September 2011

The world famous Mercat de la Boqueria is exactly as magnificent and as huge as it appears on all the trendy travel shows and magazines. This market has become, at least in the mind of tourists and travelers alike, synonymous with the city of Barcelona. Its gated entrance holds the allure of a rustic but well-built food fortress which comes alive every morning, bursting at the seams with such color and vibrancy found only in my imagination until I had the chance to experience La Boqueria for myself.

Katie and I strolled for about an hour and a half through the linear paths between stands barely able to accommodate the width of two people. Nonetheless, hungry and curious customers shove and squeeze their way from one end to the other thousands of times a day. Let me tell you, it is worth the frustration, and the occasional bodily harm to walk trhough this food paradise. They sell everything here, everything you could dream of cooking- from a Spanish perspective. Multiple vendors compete for the same tourists, and its tough competition for every stand is as appealing as the next. Especially eye-catching are the fruit stands and more specifically, those selling all of those same fruits, but in juice form: simply delicious and fresh. I bought about six different types of juice during my stay, and I could have had more!

While La Boqueria does certainly deliver the spectacle and quality that it has come to be known for, there is no doubt that this market is no longer simply just a market in the city of Barcelona. It is an institution. It is a tourist attraction, but it is also a deeply personal family and city staple. The prices for a lot of products are high, and a lot of vendors now announce sales in English. Though I cannot and will not question its authenticity, La Boqueria does not need to win over anyone. It is what it is, and if you don’t like it, fine. Thousands of other people will continue to flood its narrow and deliciously perfumed couloirs long after we are gone.

http://www.boqueria.info/

Katie and I, like previously mentioned, walked around for an hour, bought fruit, juice, some salad, and cod fritters. Then we headed off to our next stop for the day feeling like we had just witnessed something great. We came back down Las Ramblas at the end of a long day toward our hotel, and noticed La Boqueria was closed for the day. At the end of a busy day, the market shuts down only to appear like a dark and rusty warehouse building until the vendors return to start anew the next morning. Only they are privy to the secret of how to transform, in a matter of hours, such an austere and dark structure into something that seems to be expertly splashed with colors directly from a painter’s palate.