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Around the world through the posts of La Boqueria

2021-02-16T16:46:12.899Z


Turning 180 years old, the Barcelona market today hides curious international kitchen products demanded by new customers


Travelers know that a market has many things about a place and its inhabitants, and it is usually one of the places marked on the road map.

It is always tempting to see and smell the motley stalls of local products, taste typical dishes with unfamiliar aromas and mingle with the merchants and neighbors who crowd the aisles.

In Barcelona, ​​the most visited market is La Boqueria - the average is estimated at 50,000 people a day - although now tourists have vanished due to the restrictions of the pandemic.

This popular food center, located at 91 La Rambla and which celebrated its 180th anniversary in 2020, has a lot to do with the hospitality of the Catalan capital.

Here dozens of nationalities mix and there are several stalls that have already adapted their offer to the claim of the culinary traditions of neighbors from countries around the world.

Through the aisles of the market you can go around the globe, starting with Soley, a fruit and vegetable stall that opened in 1864 and is a clear example that in La Boqueria you can find everything.

Few like them have been updated to satisfy the palates of their new customers, who have been asking for those products that allowed them to keep their gastronomic roots on fire in a distant city.

Already retired, but a regular at the market where he grew up, Eduard Soley continues to walk around here and shows with curiosity the most unknown products that they have in their stall.

Remember that coriander, now highly standardized, was one of the first exotic products that he imported.

"The Latinos began to sue him," he recalls.

enlarge photo Selection of chili peppers at a stand in La Boqueria.

getty images

Now the variety of imports is much wider.

On a crowded counter, he displays some small purple balls, one of the fruits that they have recently added to their assortment:

açaí

.

"Brazilians put it in juices and ice creams," Soley says of this Amazonian fruit that has been introduced in restaurants and kitchens for its healthy powers.

Another fruit sold here is the pitahaya, of tropical origin and similar to a cactus, also known as dragon fruit and imported from Central American countries such as Nicaragua or Colombia, but also from Thailand or Vietnam.

Similar to lychee but with a hairy layer, another of the fruits they have is rambutan, a kind of sweet and acid grape grain from Indonesia.

In the field of vegetables there are also curious things.

In addition to

pak choi,

a Chinese chard that is known for the noodle bowls served in many Asian restaurants, they also have salicornia, a salty seaweed used in Chinese cuisine for seasoning.

This store specializes in hot spices and they sell the strongest in the world, such as the piquín chili (

Capsicum annuum

) or the Carolina Reaper, but to salivate at great length they also have another vegetable, a curious flower, called electric or Sechuan.

Just stroke your tongue to cause a discharge that overwhelms your taste buds;

the electrifying salivation lasts a long time.

In haute cuisine it is used for desserts and it is also a common condiment in cocktails.

But the most curious thing to be found in Soley's assortment today does not come from the plant kingdom, but from the mineral.

Zucchini is a whitish stone that is not swallowed, but rather sucked.

In countries like Senegal, Uganda or Togo, pregnant women sip it to get an extra calcium.

From the vegetable kingdom to the animal.

Meats are also different, and especially their cuts, in each country.

At the Boket stand they know it well and have a varied offer that attracts the most demanding customers and from diverse gastronomic origins.

Manuel Ruiz has been at the helm for 30 years.

On its counters it has from the most coveted

wagyu

meat

from Kobe, certified from this Japanese region, to the typical picaña from Brazil.

Argentine cuts such as roast, strip, churrasco or beef slaughter, and Creole sausages.

Ruiz says that the demand for meat from Brazil and Argentina started about 15 years ago and has grown.

Not only Argentines and Brazilians demand these foods, but many Barcelonians have already incorporated them into their barbecues.

In the world of birds and hunting the specialists here are Avinova.

In addition to hares, rabbits, pheasants, Collverd ducks, red partridges or peeled tudons, you can buy the acclaimed chickens from Bresse, a

delicatessen

from the French countryside;

specimens raised in freedom and with a very specific diet, highly valued for the flavor and texture of their meat.

Aina Capdevila, in charge of the bus stop with her brother Manel, assures that there is no store like hers in Barcelona.

In fact, they also sell their coveted poultry to other butchers and stalls.

enlarge photo A bathroom at the El Quim restaurant in the La Boquería market.

JUAN BARBOSA

Hearts for sale

In Menuts Rosa they have been seeing how the offal was removed from the kitchens in some moments of its history, which dates back to 1900. And also how the citizens of other countries take advantage of everything from the animals.

Francisca Gabaldà is in charge of this stand, which shows the tripe and all kinds of veal and lamb viscera.

There are common products, such as tongue,

Galtes (

cheek

)

, kidney, heart or calluses, and eaten in many places.

But then there are more specific parts coveted by some gastronomies, such as the ox penis and the criadillas, which make good wines in Latin America.

Gabaldà says that his Chinese clients also buy the penis, because the texture of its meat resembles a shark fin.

Latin Americans and Africans are also very common buyers.

In Argentina, for example, chinchulines are eaten, the small intestine of veal or ox, and Peruvians eat the heart, and he quotes the Lima chef Gastón Acurio, who has become fashionable in the city and around the world. the cuisine of the Andean country.

The French very much appreciate the lattice, they call it

unglet

.

For those who do not want to cook but eat, El Quim is one of the bars in the market that attracts the most attention.

Open since 1987, they have been able to mix the Catalan culinary tradition with trends from other countries.

Yuri Márquez, Quim's son, cooks a

bath

with oxtail, mushrooms with garlic prawns and sweet and sour sauce, or the Causa Lima, a finer potato puree with yellow pepper and

wayu

with soy sauce and mustard.

One more sample of how La Boqueria mixes the world's gastronomies.

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Source: elparis

All news articles on 2021-02-16

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