I have stayed true to my vow to attend the Mercat Central weekly. On this trip I purchased a little goat cheese, a bottle of wine, a kilo of cherries and discovered that prices for fruit are advertised by the ¼ kilo and not a whole kilo; unfortunately my Spanish isn’t polished enough to inform the fruit vendor I am trying to befriend that I did not want to spend 10 euros on cherries.

I am determined to discover what is typical Spanish cuisine. These market trips will help with the prepared foods, cheese and fruits but I will also need to dine out. I have made a list of fifteen restaurants and cafes I will eat at over the next few weeks, but until then I decided to taste what was readily available—pastries.


After pushing past the horde of old women buying plump octopus and slithering eels, I made my way to the instantly edible section of the market and deftly purchased eight miniature empanadillas. If you’ve never heard the name, you’ve probably had these goodies in some form. They are little pouches of dough, filled with savory, sweet or a combination of the two and fried or baked. I decided to purchase 2 chocolate, 2 sweet potato, 2 onion and 2 unidentifiable types the nice lady recommended/pushed onto me.


My original intent was to sample one of each, record the distinct flavors and textures of each, and save the rest for additional testing later on. Everything started out fine. I lined them up on my desk, photographed them for visual reference, observed their subtle differences and cleansed my palate between each different bite.

…

Twenty minutes later I devoured every last crumb and ate half of my overpriced—but thoroughly delicious—cherries. More funds will have to be funneled into this project. Despite my minor setback and sumptuous bellyache, I will carry on.