If you want to go shopping in Pere Garau Market on a Saturday you’d better turn up early, for by 10:00 a lot of the fresh food will be gone.
Unlike the markets Santa Catalina and L’Olivar, Pere Garau is for serious food shoppers with their eye on the bargain. There are no frills, no bespoke this and exclusive that, just fresh produce straight from the farm shining red, green and yellow in the morning sun. For again unlike the other two, a large part of the Pere Garau market is actually situated outside.
The indoor part of the market reflects the demographic of this, the most colourful part of Palma, with condiments, spices and dried stuff from South America and South East Asia. Here you hear Mallorquin more than Castellano. The obligatory Saturday drinking seems almost perfunctory, with the vermut or cerveza chucked back while standing up; the food stands more fast food than five star.
Photos courtesy of Cecilie Gamst Berg
The densest line – or rather, crowding, as people don’t stand in line here – is in front of Peixos, Peixos, Peixos (fish, fish, fish) where wifeys with arms like Iberian hams wait patiently fish, so fresh it’s still moving. Are they making paella tonight? The counter for strangely obscene looking sobrasada is also thronged.
Some bottles of Puente del Lago are scattered near the cheeses almost as an afterthought with a crudely written sign: 3 euros. This wine costs 6.50 and upwards in shops.
Pere Garau has everything a food lover needs. It’s noisy and slightly messy, it’s colourful and it’s much cheaper than the supermarket. Just like a real market should be.
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