Reflective Essay: Fresh Found Diversity

My visit to Europe last summer made me aware of cultural diversity. Spain was my favorite of the three countries I visited. It was so gorgeous and laid back, I loved it! There is a main street in Barcelona, La Rambla, it runs through the main city area. On this long strip, is located their infamous covered market, La Boqueria, originally named Mercat de Sant Josep. This is Barcelona’s most famous food market, one of the most beautiful markets in the world. It was a fun and interesting experience I will never forget.

In movies and on television markets always seem dirty and not very attractive for a place to sell food. As soon as I walked in to Barcelona’s market I knew that notion was completely wrong. The first thing I saw were different booths everywhere, every sort of food imaginable was there. There were booths filled with luscious fruits and vegetables, chicken and beef, an entire section of seafood, spices, bread, and so much more. Multiple booths for the same products. Each booth had their prices easily displayed. Everything was so fresh and vibrant looking. From only this one aspect, food, it showed great differences between my American culture and the European. I didn’t the selling of food products could make such an impact.

The first I came to were the “candy stands”, a few different booths, five feet tall, just filled with sugar coated delights. It was the most brilliant colored display of food I had ever seen. Gummies in every shape and color, from gummy fried eggs to the typical gummy bears. It was nothing compared to aisle 4 at Kings Soopers, where you scoop a pound or two of hard old candy into a bag, or purchase wrapped, labeled, name brand candy bars. Already the diversity is obvious. I think this makes it so much more fun, like a candy stand should be. The fruit stands were filled with every kind of juicy product. The strawberries and blueberries weren’t boxed like here, they were just out to grab whichever you preferred. Not one thing was packaged, everything was in straight rows or in a bunch to choose from. The banana bundles hung from the top, freshest yellowiest bananas ever. In addition there were freshly made smoothies displayed also, being made from that fruit every few minutes. It was great. At my local store we can buy packaged fruit smoothie mix, “just add milk!“. Once again, a great example of how fresh everything was. These stands also sold the greenest vegetables: full celery stick bundles, fresh long carrots, candy red tomatoes and peppers, long corn on the cob with leaves still attached, and potatoes right from the ground. Although these displays were similar to those in American stores, it was still so different, the way it was displayed and the abundance of the products.

On the other hand, meat is a different story. Like I said before everything is fresh. The sea isn’t too far, but maybe a few miles down La Rambla, therefore the seafood area was crazy. The floor was soaked from men rinsing off their new incomings, there were parts on the floor near booths from cleaning out a fish or making the shrimp presentable. Though it was gross I was distracted from all chaos around me, all the slicing and dicing. Some of the seafood that was being sold had only been caught hours ago. Usually I am used to seeing fish, lobster, clams, oysters, and shrimp for sale in that section. No, not here it was that and everything else. Alive urchins were for sale, a gooey glob thing was for sale to eat. It literally ran through my friend’s hand when she held it, I don’t know how or why you would eat that. Maybe it is only an ingredient to a bigger recipe .

The beef display was shocking to me! After a while, I was hesitant to look at some cases being displayed. Just in one case there was all the insides of a cow displayed in different parts. Tongues, stomachs, intestines, livers, testicles, kidneys, and even an entire skinned head with eyeballs still in place were all available to be purchased. Also, the ham section had simply entire legs from the upper thigh to the hoof (not removed yet) of meat for sale, or sometimes even entire pigs. It was pretty gross, compared to what I usually see here: a few big pieces of meat for steak or a slab of ribs, or packaged meat for lunch meat or breakfast meat. This was one of the strongest differences between our cultures. Most Americans who pass that display I am sure stop and stare into the case with some funny disgusted look on their face, we just aren’t used to everything being put out there like that. Because they don’t like to waste, they use every part unlike here in America. We can’t handle it if it was in our grocery store, too many people I am sure would complain. Grotesque would be our immediate thought, it even went through my mind as I kept seeing new, never seen body parts for sale, and to eat for that matter!

Moving along the meat area chickens caught my eye, hanging from the top of the booth. Most still had their heads, but the feather plucking had been done for the customers. Lines of dead chickens above me. This was definitely a new site for me. It was a brief glance as we passed quickly. I can’t imagine if that was what I saw in King’s Soopers, us Americans are too lazy to finish the job of beheading and such to the dead chicken for our dinner. Later, as we were searching for the bathrooms, I saw a bucket kind of behind a booth that had chicken legs sticking out of it, just the legs. It caught me off guard. All these little things were so surreal.

Spices were next, nothing packaged or in shaking containers. Oils being displayed as well. The garlic cloves still stranded to each other in a “garlic necklace” hung above me. Dried spices everywhere, I barely recognized the products because I had never seen spices before like this. The nut stands were overwhelming as well, so many different shapes, sizes, and flavors to choose from. Another stand I saw was selling bread. Different lengths and widths of loaves hanging or in the case looked delicious. Most of these displays looked fake, plastic because it was so picture perfect and colorful.

The cultural diversity was so apparent here in several ways. When I compare Mercat de Sant Josep to the Kings Soopers I have always gone to, there is such a huge difference. Location, prices, organization, products, displays, people, and the general atmosphere are all different. Nothing was boxed, bagged, canned, or packaged, not one thing like everything is in our stores. Wow we are so lucky you may think but in reality maybe we are the ones that have it hard. Think of how much they learn with food, cooking, and taking care of their own meals. Nothing is pre-prepared. Even their meat, the merchandiser cuts it off the animal and sometimes skin it, and that’s about it. . Our meat displays would be luxury to those consumers. In our stores there is aisle by aisle stacked with packaged and canned products, it’s all about convenience and brands. In Spain people are very relaxed and carefree, people all over Europe are healthy and look great. When you go grocery shopping and you have nothing but fresh products, no preservatives, it must be delicious and good for you. There are many options over there that aren’t presented to us here in America. We could definitely learn from other cultures to benefit us. It was so much fun to see so many different aspects of a “grocery store”, I spent so much time with just food, but the market made it that intriguing. It truly was magnificent.