If you visit one place in Barcelona, make it La Boqueria! Located in the heart of Las Ramblas, Barcelona's iconic busy walking street, La Boqueria is a true foodie paradise. Walk down any of the aisles and you'll find candy as diverse and abundant as the Willy Wonka factory, mouthwatering fresh fruit and vegetables, meats of every type cut and using every piece of an animal, local Spanish cheeses, and fresh daily caught seafood. The products range from normal everyday grocery items to more exotic products such as as salmon, figs, saffron, octopus, or spices.
I’ll keep the history lesson about La Boqueria brief: the building was built in the 1800s on the site of a demolished church as Barcelona's first central food market. Today, the food market trend has exploded and Barcelona is now known as one of the best examples of a modern Market City. We have a whopping 43 permanent public food markets. Every neighborhood in the city has a market and its residents rank their public markets as the second most valuable service after the public libraries. No matter where you are in Barcelona, you are never more than 10 minutes from a fresh market.
One of my favorite things I've learned while studying abroad in Barcelona is taking advantage of the easily available foodstuff and teaching myself how to cook! Forget microwavable meals and frozen pizza that we’re all too familiar with during finals weeks back in the US, we’ve made honey lime quinoa stuffed sweet potatoes, roasted veggies and salmon, or fried rice with calamari. In this video, come join me on a mini tour of my favorite place in Barcelona and then back to my CEA apartment to make dinner!
Katie Kennelly is the Spring 2015 CEA MOJO Photographer in Barcelona, Spain. She is currently a junior at Cornell University.