La Boqueria - Food Market in Barcelona

While writing down the Paella recipe it occurred to me that I never really shared any pictures of our last Europe travels in France and Spain. It seems like it was just yesterday and at the same time ages ago. Why does time seem to move so darn fast?!

My very favorite place we visited was La Boceria in Barcelona, a food market just off of La Rambla, the main tourist street in central Barcelona.  I admit it, I have a thing for beautiful markets.

If you love to eat and cook like we do, then a market like that is a feast for the eyes as well as the nose and the taste buds!

And visiting one of these markets in other countries gives you such an insight into what foods are regularly consumed that we might not touch at all... I spared you a few of the very graphic photos of whole sheep heads! I think some things you have to grow up with to really appreciate. I did not appreciate those!

Ahhhh, look at that fruit - a riot of color.

Can I have one of each, please?

Barcelona, of course, is famous for the Iberico hams and I ate plenty! I love cured meats - something I definitely grew up eating a lot of in Germany.

You could even buy paper cones filled with shavings of ham on the street for a quick snack. That's my kind of snacking...

The other local food we ate plenty of was anything prepared with salt cod, or bacalao. Delicious!!

That reminds me that I have some in the pantry. I brought back a few cookbooks from Spain and can probably find an excellent recipe. Must remember!!

The seafood in general was amazing!! Fresh and so much variety. We certainly ate our fill on this trip!

 

And here, friends, is my all-time favorite spot of the whole vacation: the Pinotxo Bar at the market.

Daniel recognized this wonderful gentleman from a photo in our Rick Steves guidebook and we patiently waited until a couple of seats became vacant.

When he took our order, he simply asked if we wanted seafood or meat and when we both answered seafood, he took a look at us, nodded his head and went off to put in our order. The food was amazing!! Big shrimp as a starter, followed by a delicious fish entree.

Somehow he knew exactly what we would like. I could have stayed for years... Seriously!! 

 

Actually, there are not many places I would move to for a certain time period, but Barcelona I would! It's such a beautiful city, right on the water. I'll have to share more photos with you...

For today I leave you with much love!

❧ Silke
P.S. I've been painting again and will have some art to show you soon.

P.P.S. I'm also knitting like a fiend and need to take a photo of all my projects in the works on big fat needles, smaller needles and on some that feel like I'm knitting with toothpicks.