04Experiences

Markets

La Boqueria and the ham windows

The Mercat de Sant Josep, known as La Boqueria, is a large public market in Barcelona’s old city, with its entrance on La Rambla not far from the opera house. The goods run wide: fruit, dried peppers hanging in braids, fish, sweets. The crush at midday is real, and the edges are quieter. The price is on the card in front of the goods, and a taste is asked for rather than taken from an open display. Jamón ibérico turns up in this market and in the markets of Madrid: legs hanging, sliced to order. Production is Spanish and Portuguese together, and the sale is by weight. If time is short, an hour in La Boqueria is enough, and lunch can be what you bought, eaten on a nearby bench rather than in the aisle. La Rambla itself is a walk, not only a market, and some of the sellers have nothing to do with food. Carry a small note for payment, because a few stalls prefer it to a card for a small sum. The open front and the crowd mark the hall, and the door on La Rambla is the entrance to look for.