La Boqueria Was Fabulous, And Then We Choked

I was really looking forward to lunch at LaBoqueria, the famed Barcelona market just off La Rambla.  It’s huge, and has just about everything – counters of fish, of jamon, fruits, candies, and more.  

There are fabulous stand where you pay your money and they shuck oysters that you eat right there in the market.  You can buy cups of delicious jamon to eat as you walk around.

I love olives.

Oysters and sea urchins.

Just waiting for you to

come visit.  And partake.

Insert your own cheesy joke here.

Literally hamming it up.

Well, they look surprised to be here.

A tasty looking Jamon bocadillo.

The finest jamon in the world.

Nuts this looks good.

Pretty sweet.

Urchins, or, as the sign says,

"Big Sea Hedgehogs."

Sea urchins make good eating.

There are also many food counters where you sit at the bar and eat fabulous tapas prepared right in front of you.  And, there are restaurants all around the outside of the market, but the key is to eat at one of the food counters.

I've said it before, and I will say it again.  I wish we had these food markets in the U.S. like they have in Europe.  They are absolutely beautiful.  Even though it appears there are fewer stands now than pre-COVID, it's still inspirational to walk around, jaw-dropping and drooling.

Don and I each had an oyster before we got serious about looking for lunch.  The oyster counters have added huge sea urchins, which they market as “sea hedgehogs” in English, presumably as a way to sell them to Brits.  The workers carefully crack the urchins, scoop out the bad parts.  One guy buying one tasted it, and then got a second one for his buddy.  That’s when I decided I needed one.

We wandered around La Boqueria a little longer, but everyone was getting hungry.  It was past 1:30pm, and we had an active morning.

We got online to wait for seats at Bar Central, where we ate several times in 2019.  It was fabulous.  The one guy gave us menus and said it would be five minutes before we were seated, which I took to mean ten minutes.  Not a big deal.

Then another guy came along and said follow me, we have a table for four.  Following him was undoubtedly the worst food decision of the trip.  Instead of leading us to a small table on the other side of the bar, he led us to the back, where they have a separate sit down restaurant.  We weren’t happy, but felt like, since he pulled us out of line, we had no choice but to sit there.  Plus, it was getting well past lunchtime.

We were waiting a while, and about to get up when a nice woman came, apologized, and took both our drink and food order.  So that mollified us for a bit, until the food came.  It was not very good.  The razor clams had no flavor.  The padron peppers could not have been cooked more than 30 seconds.  Carol actually sent them back.  At least when they came back, the peppers were done. The rest of the food was slightly better, but it was not the great experience we had remembered from 2019.  The food 

Since we weren’t gruntled by the meal, we were definitely disgruntled.

Editor’s Note: Now you are just making words up.

Blogger: That’s what I thought, but “gruntled” actually means to be “pleased, satisfied, and contented.”  So there! (Thrusts arms up to the sky like a victorious boxer).

Well, like that woman singer who has had some modest career success lately, we had to shake it off.  So we did by getting sea urchin for Don and I to eat.  It tasted like a pretty sweet fruit.  I would definitely have it again.

Back to the Bar Central Well, the lesson is, don’t get led away from where you want to be to the not-so-good place in the back.  Stuff happens, and we had to build a bridge and get over it, as the young folks like to advise.