ActivityBarcelona, Catalonia, Spain
A Morning at La Boqueria
Barcelona's great market before the crowds arrive
Average rating 4.0 out of 5
4.03 reviews$$
Arrive at eight, walk past the juice stands and eat breakfast at a counter bar among the fishmongers.
Go early, go deep
The Mercat de Sant Josep, which everyone calls La Boqueria, has traded on La Rambla since the Middle Ages and under its iron roof since the nineteenth century. By eleven it is a slow-moving river of phones and fruit cups. At eight it is a working market: chefs collecting orders, crates of razor clams and percebes arriving on ice, and the counter bars frying eggs for the stallholders.
Walk straight past the first ring of stalls by the entrance. The pre-cut fruit and smoothies are made for passers-by and priced accordingly. The real market is in the middle and at the back: the fish hall, the offal sellers, the stands of dried peppers and salt cod, and the mushroom stall that in autumn is piled with ceps and chanterelles from the Pyrenees.
Find a stool at one of the small counter bars and order what the person next to you is eating. Breakfast here might be chickpeas with blood sausage, a plate of baby squid with a fried egg, or simply tomato bread and a cortado. Most bars stop cooking by early afternoon, and the market is closed on Sundays.
The fruit stalls
Market manners
- Ask before you photograph a stall, and buy something if you do
- Do not touch the produce; point and the stallholder will choose
- Bring small notes and coins for the counter bars
- Carry a bag: the market charges for plastic
If it is too busy
About this story
Emma EditorAuthor
Demo Travel AgencyPublisher
Reviews
Write a reviewAverage rating 4.0 out of 5
3 reviews- FIFatima Zahra El Idrissi2 out of 5 stars9 Sept
The prices quoted were well off by the time we travelled, and the hotel suggested was covered in scaffolding.
- ZDZanele Dlamini5 out of 5 stars2 Aug
Followed this almost to the letter over a long weekend and it was spot on. The early-morning tips alone saved us hours of queueing.
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