We went back to La Boqueria because we wanted to check out the market in the morning. The last time we were there, it was in the late afternoon and half the market was already closed.
We are going to look for food, specifically for our 2nd breakfast. It was supposed to be a “savory breakfast” and consisting of items like the potato omelette or sandwiches.
We were right. There were a lot of food outlets here. All of them are small with bar style seating.
Needless to say it was crowded. It just happened that a couple was just about to leave when we walked past the above stall. Good timing.
This place does not look like they serve “savory breakfast”. Anyway, since people are having this in early morning, I guess we’ll have the same too. The food on display at the counter is so enticing. Look at the prawns …
… and the octopus.
Despite the crowd of people, they sure worked very slowly. Sitting at the bar looking at them preparing just the orange juice, it took them like 5 minutes to get that prepared.
One thing we noticed about the orange juices we had in Spain, they are all freshly squeezed orange juice.
We ordered a little something as snack. We ordered the …
… the Grilled Baby Squid. We ordered this by pointing to the couple sitting next to us. It looked and smelt so good. The tentacles were grilled crispy.
We wanted to order this and then later on another item. We said we wanted a serving for one person. We got a big plate for two people instead.
It has a nice saltiness to the taste.
This meal was just €12. We expect it to be more expensive since the La Boqueria is basically a tourist trap. So we were surprised it was just €12 (about CAD $20).
The bread was good as we had come to expect here in Spain. It was good enough to eat it by itself … did not need the olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
We used the bread to clean up the olive oil sauce from the grilled squid plate. We asked for extra bread.
After the squid, we walked around the market. Saw some really tempting fruits. We just realized then we hardly had any fruits the past few days.
This one is €3.
So this is meal #2. Two down, four to go!
Wow! Food looks yummy! Really like the way you write about your travels (pic’s are awesome too) and thank you Suanne for the great recipes!
I can’t figure out how Spanish people eat the savory breakfast at work? Do they have a savory breakfast break too besides lunch break?
Dinner at 10, that’s bound to gain weight for me. Do they have a lot of nightlife? Because if you eat at 10 pm, you can’t just go to bed right away, can you? Don’t you have to walk around and do something? How do they go to work in the morning next day if they enjoy nightlife? I am confused.
The squid looked really tasty, but I couldn’t imagine having it for breakfast! Luckily it was a second breakfast 😛
Nice Spain posts. I’ve got my own up, if you want to compare: http://www.clutterer.com. Barcelona, Bilbao, Madrid.
Hi,
I’m sorry to correct you but The Boqueria is not a tourist trap at all. I am from Barcelona and stumbled upon your website looking for a seafood and pumpkin recipe, which I found thank you 🙂 The Boqueria has been here since forever and local people do their shopping there all the time and there are very similar markets all over Barcelona. I used to when I lived one road behind The Boqueria, but then I moved because the tourists have taken over. I can assure you that things were not that different before everyone started to fill the area, the only thing that is different is the volume of people and that lots of local people have been forced out of the area. I am not complaining as tourism is very necessary and we’re happy that people enjoy Barcelona. I now have a different market very close to where I live and it’s more expensive than The Boqueria and that has no tourists, which makes my day to day life much easier. Now if you were to say the restaurants on Las Ramblas are a tourist trap I would not argue 🙂
Oh and Karla, we don’t all go out every night, just some nights, the late nights are kept by people who start work late. But it’s nice to have the option.
When in Barcelon, I found a very nice market on Carrer de Valencia, not tourist infested like La Boqueria. Restaurants along La Ramblas are indeed tourist traps where 1 order of coke costs EUR4.50!