Saturday, October 19, 2013

Spanish Street Food

In the cities we visited--Barcelona, Granada, Ronda, Malaga, and Seville--great-looking food was on view everywhere. We walked down streets entirely taken over by outdoor cafés:


 We saw many gelaterías, with their tempting, colorful offerings:


And bakeries with dozens and dozens of yummy things on display in the windows:




However, my favorite place to ogle food was the outdoor food markets.

In Madrid we strolled through the Mercado de San Miguel: Technically, it's an outdoor market, because although it has a roof, it only has roll-up plastic curtains for walls. Inside, it resembles a gigantic tapería wedded to a nonstop bakery fused onto a paella restaurant the size of a basketball court:


The place is packed with locals sopping up tapas, washing down drinks, and nabbing yummy things to take home for dinner or dessert:






BIG pan of paella!:




In the midst of all the hubbub and activity, it's still possible to share a quiet moment with someone special:

My hands-down favorite outdoor food market, however, is La Boquería in Barcelona. It is like a huge, outdoors temple to food. You can find everything there, from a whole sheep's head to tiny silver nonpareils for decorating cookies, and everything in between:

I loved the chocolate teacups and hedgehogs:


Stunning marzipan fruits and veggies and other crazy food shapes:


 Tiny licorice cats:


Three different filled-dough thingies on a stick, for takeaway snacking. Genius:


Dragonfruit, I think? all wrapped and spoon'd and equally portable:


Mounds of eggs in straw:


Rather disgusting-looking razor clams:


and fish so fresh it'll bite if you get too close:


This gal was expertly filleting fish with a wicked knife about the size of a machete:


Beautiful mushrooms for sale:


Teeny-tiny wild strawberries with a big price tag:


Don't look if you're a vegetarian!:


 Grab-and-go drinks in a rainbow of flavors:


I wish there were a Boquería around the corner from my house. On the other hand, I'd overeat daily if there were.

So, maybe not.






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