Shopping (and laundry)

It seems like my two most frequent activities are shopping and doing laundry. Lacking a dryer, clothes take two days to dry, especially since I can't always hang them out outside (it's been raining quite a bit here lately, reminding me of Vancouver). So you have to plan carefully: am I going to need those jeans tomorrow or Tuesday? Thus far, my best strategy seems to be to do laundry in the morning while I'm at the gym, this way the washing machine is done when I get back and I can hang the clothes out while I'm at work. In the meantime, if I'm not doing laundry or working, I go shopping—lacking a car it's better to do make smaller shopping trips more frequently than doing the one large weekly shopping excursion at home. Above in the pic is the Mercat d'Hostafrancs, the large market that is just across the street from my apartment. The above pic is of the front, my apartment is across the street from the back of the market. One annoying aspect of this is that I get to hear all the delivery trucks when they arrive in the morning. Early in the morning...

Inside the market, you have a bunch of stands where each one offers some sort of specialization: vegetables, meats, fish, sausages, cheeses, etc. I think one stand offers figs and peanuts. I've bought fresh veggies here before, as well as a really good, fresh piece of cod. That was really tasty; I found on online recipe on how to prepare it in my little oven, with (if I remember correctly) bread crumbs and garlic. I also added some pepper flakes to give it a kick. But actually I don't shop at this market that often because I found (I was told about) a pretty decent grocery store just up the street (just past the gym where I workout every weekday morning).

The grocery store is called Esclat and it doesn't look like much from the outside. Inside, the top floor has basic house stuff like kitchen towels, light bulbs (expensive for some reason), etc. (think Wal-Mart but not as huge). Downstairs is the grocery store, which pretty much has everything I need. I had trouble finding yeast, for example (for making pizza dough) but I found it here. They also have a good meat selection, good cheeses, and a good deli. I haven't yet ordered anything at the deli, but I probably should start buying my ham there as I'm not too thrilled with the packaged selection. Their seafood section is also quite decent, particularly for their squid selection. I bought 450 g today for making a calamari and pasta dish later this week—that's about two of those large squids that you see on ice in the pic (to the right of the large, white what I think are cuttle fish—I don't have a recipe for cuttle fish but if that's what they are I think they're really tasty as well; one of my favorite sushi choices). They're fresh and the lady cleaned them out for me right then and there. She spoke really fast so I didn't quite catch what she said but caught the word limpio which is to clean. Well, I didn't really get a chance to say "yes, please" before she went ahead and started. But having done this job myself (taking out the squid's spine and ink sack, and cutting off its eye and beak), I recognized what she was doing and smiled and said something like si, gracias because I was happy to see her doing this for me. Today I also bought some lamb chops and some beef fillet that I'm cooking up as Beef Wellington for dinner. It's resting as I write, hopefully the little dinky oven I have managed to cook it properly...buen provecho to me :)