A visit to El Lleó marketplace in Girona.

"El Lleó marketplace is the city's centre of distribution for fresh quality produce. It houses a total of 60 stalls selling diverse products: meat, fish, fruit and vegetables, groceries… The market is a vital destination for many of the city's chefs who shop there for their restaurants, and is a daily meeting point for the citizens of Girona."

That's what we read online.  So we decided to give it a go.  It was pretty cool and so much to offer.  We decided to get some cheese (sheep) and also some calamari and chicken. The fish monger was really nice and we picked up some amazing, fresh calamari.  We both love calamari but we have never cooked it at home.  Time to try.  The chicken stand was crowded and I don't read catalan, but I figured it out. Ordered some chicken legs and drumsticks. They were sold out of a lot of stuff, I guess we got there a bit late (at 11:00 am). I was looking for fresh eggs, it seems that the supermarkets only sell eggs from the factory farms, which seem to be all over Spain.  I have no desire to eat those eggs and want ones that are organic and free-range, and by free-range I mean really free-range.  I couldn't find any, maybe I was there too late, or maybe it's not the place to find them.  My search continues.

We cooked up our calamari and it was fantastic.  Could be a once a week meal for us.  We are pretty boring with our food. Some type of protein (chicken, pork, fish) and veggies or a salad.  But this night we mixed it up and actually had some rice and lentils. It was a nice change and so easy, fast, fresh and inexpensive.

I'm getting to know the area, but I'm sure there are better places to get certain things.  I just need to ask around and get the inside scoop on where to shop.

Monday market in Caussade

Today we had to take our car up to the Peugeot dealership for it's 50K tune-up.  Our good friend C was going up to the Caussade market and so we planned to meet her there after dropping off the car, so she could take us home.  We have never been to the Caussade market, not really sure why.  Maybe because Sunday is market day in our village, St. Antonin and we usually just stay here.  Not that Caussade is far, just up the big hill, maybe 7K away.

But I must say that I was pleasantly surprised.  It was a wonderful market.  And I'm pretty sure I'll be skipping our busy, touristy market and going to Caussade's instead.  It's interesting because our market is very busy, but our village is quite small (but beautiful) and there are loads of tourists that come to our market, which means the prices are higher....the prices at the Caussade market are lower and there are more stalls and choices.

We had a lovely time.  For our Culinary Retreat May 12-19th we'll go to our Sunday market in St. Antonin, because it's pretty special, but on Monday we'll go to Caussade for the weekly shopping for sure.