La Boqueria at Opening Time on a Weekday

La Boqueria is both the most visited market in Europe and, in the right conditions, the most extraordinary one. The 'right conditions' are: a Tuesday morning between eight and ten, when the produce vendors are fresh-stocked, the chefs from Barcelona's restaurants are doing their rounds, and the tourist surge has not yet arrived from the hotels. In those two hours, it is possible to walk the central aisle of stalls selling tomatoes that actually smell of tomatoes, jambon de bellota cut from the back leg of a pig that ate acorns for its entire life, sea urchins cracked open while you watch, and cherries from the Ebro delta that will change your understanding of what a cherry can be.

The market's Bar Pinotxo, run by the Bayen family since 1940, opens at 6am for the market workers. Order a small beer, a plate of chickpeas with blood sausage, and whatever the daily special is on the chalkboard. This is not tourist food. This is the food the people who get up at four in the morning to supply the city with its ingredients choose to eat when they have a break. It costs almost nothing and it is magnificent.

By eleven, the Boqueria transforms. The tourist stalls with overpriced sangria and photo opportunities move to the front; the real vendors — the mushroom sellers, the spice importers, the cheese specialists — retreat to the back. Plan accordingly. The market is at its best before the Ramblas tourists find it and before the heat of the Barcelona day arrives.