In a cosmopolitan world, entering a local food market in Portugal, or Paris, or Vietnam, is like a breath of fresh air, the impression is like…entering a supermarket years ago? It’s where you’ll find locals in their own environment. Nothing compares to the smell of fresh fish, fresh parsley, fresh everything. A range of colors and smells. I wish I could spend one day just sniffing those oranges and apples!
One thing is for sure: you shouldn’t expect the feel of Asian markets where you can snack on all the delicious specialties…for that you have Mercado de Campo Ourique and Mercado da Ribeira and they can be pricier that you’d expect. Now that we think about it, this kind of market for everyones’ pockets, where farmers serve traditional food could stand out as a different concept in Portugal.
Undoubtedly, each market has its charm, its smell and after a while of frequenting them, each market has the same faces, especially if you create a habit of going at the same time of the day, mainly in the morning. It’s actually to this tip that we wanted to get: hit the markets early in the morning to make sure nobody is going to buy that long-awaited kilo of fresh European seabass.
Note! As you may have guessed, fish stays at the centre of the Portuguese markets, because fish stays at the centre of the Portugese cuisine. And we happen to like it a lot! 🙂
Every now and then you’ll hear a voice shouting: “Do you want fresh fish, lady?”; “Look at this beautiful scabbard fish, sir!” And then I (Diana) look at that fish and I get the jitters… Before tasting scabbard fish for the first time to confess to its tastefulness, I thought that if one day Edgar would bring that fish at home, I’d lock it in one refrigerator drawer ’till the day I could fearlessly look into its eyes.
Then, we’re pretty sure you can agree upon the fact that each market has its funny character, like in our case, the omnipresent lady with the layered skirt, who walks non-stop through the market asking shoppers: “How about these handsome bulbs of garlic? Don’t be shy, have some!”, ending up giving some for free in the afternoon…
Whenever we go to a neighbourhood food market, there are three important booths we stop by: fish, fruits & vegetables and cheese. At any of them it hasn’t happened once that the merchants didn’t treat people by their first name, which means most of their clients are regular ones, with whom they’ve already built a relationship. Do you think these sellers are a vanishing breed?
Let us dig more into this topic.
Aquiring food, as Anthony Bourdain said, should be “a series of personal relationships, involving over time continuing business transactions and no small amount of trust. Ideally, your butcher knows what you like and where to get it and trusts you to show up on the appointed day and pay for what he has “fronted” money to get for you. You, in turn, you trust your butcher to supply what he said he would. You trust that the quality will be good, that you will be charged a reasonable price for it – and that he has not been grinding dead zoo animals into your pâté mix.”
We haven’t arrived at the point of being those “skillful shoppers” Anthony speaks about. However, we did find out from one restaurant owner where they get their supplies of sweet cherries. That’s how we got to meet the nice lady who sells the loveliest and most diverse fruits we’ve laid our eyes on. They are fantastic! Proof below.
A reminiscence of exotic fruits during autumn
Why we’re not yet skillful shoppers is because of Diana – I can’t help myself from asking the *fishmonger “what in the world is that creepy looking fish that I am sure it must be good and that I’d like to cook if you were kind enough to tell me how.”
But we tell you one thing: as soon as they realize that we like to cook, then the relationship will start growing stronger and smarter. Our ideal is to reach the point where they will save that superb tuna loin even if we arrive at 12:00 :). And on return, they can call us to count with buying some of the wonderful ripe-enough anonas they will receive the next day. That’s the kind of relation Anthony Bourdain talks about in his book Les Halles Cookbook: Strategies, Recipes, and Techniques of Classic Bistro Cooking.
We guess this doesn’t sound new to you, or to your parents, or to your grandparents. It usually happens naturally. The problem is that the habit is slowly dying. It’s up to us to keep it alive. After all, everything boils down to relationships and tasty food, some of the best things in life, won’t you agree?
We came back home and cooked those two European Seabass in the oven with olive oil, thyme and tomato sauce
The local markets we frequent in Lisbon: Mercado Municipal do Arroios and Mercado 31 de Janeiro
The Portuguese fish we like the most that we also recommend in restaurants, in case you’re in doubt:
Robalo – European Seabass
Dourada – Gilthead Bream
Carapau – Mackerel
Pescada – Hake
Bacalhau – Salt Cod
Garoupa – Grouper
Atum – Tuna
Espadarte – Swordfish
Peixe Espada – Scabbard fish
In a future post: We’ll also present you some of the flea markets since we’ve met many travellers looking for these local experiences.
*Fishmonger = (fishwife for women practitioners – “wife” in this case used in its archaic meaning of “woman”) is someone who sells raw fish and seafood.
