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Video: We have been to Andalusia to tell you in which markets to buy Pata Negra and percebes
2024 Author: Cody Thornton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 12:26
You love everything about Pata Negra, especially the languid glances that its fat ivory color gives you.
A nice way to atone for this gluttony is to push yourself in Andalusia, slipping between the Mezquita of Cordoba and the Alhambra of Granada a tour of the irresistible food markets.
Taking advantage of the opportunity to feast on tapas (parsley) and gastronomic wonders in abundance, capable of restoring a revived innocence of the palate.
We have just been there and we are sharing the right addresses with you.
Seville
Mercado Lonja del Barranco, C / Arjona
Designed in the late nineteenth century, overlooking the Guadalquivir and set up on the foundations of a disused building, the Lonja del Barranco concentrates an embarrassing number of food specialties in 1500 square meters.
There are about twenty shops, choosing between grilled meats, croquettes, fried fish, seafood, paella, tortillas, cheeses, hams, ice creams, desserts, fruit, wines and cocktails is quite complex.
Don't let music or theater shows, photo exhibitions and cooking workshops distract you too much.
Mercado Central de la Encarnacion, Plaza de la Encarnación, 14
In the Santa Cruz district, inside the Metropol Parasol that the Sevillians affectionately call Las Setas (mushrooms), the Mercado Central de la Incarnacion is a delight and friendly.
Spent a few minutes with the nose upwards to observe the 150 x 70 meter structure in wood, polyurethane and metal (designed by the Berlin studio Jürgen Mayer-Hermann) of 150 × 70, recalling the nostrils to order.
There is a choice of jamon, fruit, vegetables, mariscos and fresh fish from the areas of Huelva or Cadiz. Next to the large shopping hall you will also find some tienda to eat.
Mercado Calle Feria, Plaza Calderón de la Barca
Inside the Macarena, one of the most characteristic popular neighborhoods of Seville, along Calle Feria, the main artery that crosses the area, there is a small but well-stocked "mercado de abastos" (abastos stands for food or basic necessities).
Before choosing what to eat, since in addition to the symbolic dishes of Andalusian and Spanish cuisine, there are also Japanese and Mexican ones, take a look at the fish market, where the fishwives with fiery red enamel are waiting for you, skilled at filleting the catch of the day.
Looking at them and thinking about Almodovar is one and the same.
Cordoba
Mercado de Victoria, Paseo de La Victoria
It is located in what was the oldest stand of the Córdoba fair (1877), expanded in 1918.
Don't expect the classic vegetable, meat, fish and cheese market. Here the space is a succession of shops - around thirty in all - to be explored with the same spirit of the wolf when he sees a lone sheep in cartoons.
Taste everything you can: oysters, salmon, empanadas, cheeses, croquettes, as well as the inevitable pata negra.
Granada
Mercado San Agustin, Calle Postigo de San Agustin
Very close to the Cathedral, the Mercado San Agustin dates back to 1881. Later it underwent a series of renovations and reconstructions that enriched it with small restaurants and tapas bars, as well as, of course, the food stalls.
The advice is to follow the Spanish timetables for both the visit and the tastings. If you go there early in the morning, the risk of being disappointed is high: the first stalls open in the late morning.
At the table you have a moral obligation: to order a plate of salmorejo.
It is a soup-sauce with a velvety consistency made from tomatoes, oil, stale bread, garlic, served with pieces of sautéed jamon and half a hard-boiled egg.
After the first spoon you will never want to leave the plate.
And if you want to buy some cheese, look for the simplest counter, the one with the oldest seller who doesn't try to attract you with tastings and winks. He will be able to advise you on an incredible selection of queso, between different seasonings and very different flavor notes.
Jerez de la Frontera
Mercado, Calle Dona Blanca
The Jerez de la Frontera = MotoGP equation ends at the exact moment you cross the threshold of the central market, housed in a building that dates back to 1885.
If just outside a welcoming committee is waiting for you made up of caracoles sellers shouting how good their snails are, inside the estrangement is total: fish and crustaceans, meats, cheeses, fruit and vegetables, bakeries and stalls of products in oil..
Motorcycle racing will be only a vague memory, especially as we are in the sherry area here.
Cadiz
Mercado Central, Plza. Libertad
Inaugurated in 1838, the Cadiz market is a quadrilateral in which a neoclassical external porch is added to the central covered pavilion which is teeming with bars, micro-restaurants, fry shops, stalls where paella and tapas dishes come out.
For those who love numbers, here are some: 57 fruit and vegetable stalls, 54 of fish, 44 of meat, 7 of food, 4 of bread and sweets, 1 dedicated to olives. Enough?
Valencia
Colón Market, C / Jorge Juan 19
All right, geography purists will raise their hand: Valencia is not Andalusia. Okay, but since the Colon market is one of the most beautiful in all of Spain and Valencia, it is not that far from the places we have talked about, it is worth taking a detour.
It is located in the Ensanche district, a short distance from the Piazza del Comune, in a modernist style building from 1916. It has a roof made up of original domes and sloping roofs at different heights, while the interior is covered with iron, wood, ceramic and glazed tiles.
If it weren't for the percebes (the small crustaceans found between Spain and Morocco) and the hams exhibited as miss procaci with the thigh turned towards the public, one would stare at the architecture for a long time.
As usual, buy, taste, mix sweet and salty, meat, fish, fruit and cheese.
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