el Mercat de la Boqueria

I was recently in Barcelona and made a stop at this world-famous market in Las Ramblas, la Boqueria. It is tempting, colorful, and odiferous. The merchants were all pretty friendly at 8 am (we went early to avoid the crowds). From what I could tell, shoppers include restauranteurs, residents, and tourists. I'll never forget the image of a butcher throwing an entire pig leg, toes and hairs akimbo, on the scale for someone to buy.

After a big of oggling and sniffing and poking around, I found the magic phrase that would make vendors happily chat up their products and eventually offer me a taste of the goods: "Tiene algo tipico de Barcelona?" (do you have something characteristic of Barcelona?)

The highlight for me was tasting this cured Spanish ham that I can't find the name of (due to my poor Spanish skills and lazy googling efforts)... it was shaved off a huge thigh, deep red in color, and super duper chewy. The butcher instructed me to eat it by pulling it apart into little shreds with my teeth. The taste was heavenly -- meaty, not too salty, a little oily.

The produce was enormous but coming from California (and spoiled by the selection of Berkeley Bowl and Alemany Farmers Market, and the perfect displays of Whole Foods), I wasn't all that impressed. The dried fruit was pretty good, all super sugary. They even had dried strawberries (fresas) which were strangely moist for dried fruit, but good!

Hares and chickens and pheasants, oh my!

Oink.

Enormous emu eggs

More meat stands than you can shake a stick at

Row of squirming sea creatures. The critters next to the lobsters (and approx. the same size!) were enormous prawns famous in Barcelona. The women working the seafood stand were so bad-ass. Cold as ice.

I want to live in this candy hill.

Some "especial" cheese that tasted like cheddar, dragon fruit that tasted like nothing, and some pretty good bread.

Huge ass pear

Ubuntu, I wunt u

beet salad

carrot gnochetti

Cauliflower in a cast iron pot

vegan carrot cupcakes

vanilla bean cheesecake in a jar

Happy Holidayzzz

I made these for my Aunts this year for Christmas since they loved the white chocolate cranberry cookies I made last year but thought they were too much work. The picture doesn't show the colors too well, but it made a pretty package!

White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies (from allrecipes.com)
In the jar:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup dried cranberries

On the card, I wrote out instructions to mix together 1 egg, 1 tbsp of brandy (optional, add extra vanilla otherwise), 1/2 tsp vanilla, and 1/2 cup of butter, softened. Take out all the ingredients from the jar and mix in a separate bowl. Combine wet ingredients to the dry and mix well. Drop heaping spoonfuls onto baking sheet 2 inches apart and bake at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes or until lightly brown. Let cool on wire racks. Enjoy!