Mercat de la Barceloneta: Home of the Bomba
Why is it significant?
Stop in the square and take in the market hall: an old iron structure under a bold modern roof, with stalls of fish and vegetables inside and bar counters spilling onto the pavement. Nobody here is in a hurry.
Key Facts
| Place | Mercat de la Barceloneta: Home of the Bomba |
|---|---|
| Address | Plaça del Poeta Boscà 1, 08003 Barcelona, Spain |
| Geo Coordinates | 41.37970, 2.18920 |
| Part of Walk | Barceloneta and the Sea: Barcelona's Fishermen, Bombas and Beaches |
| Generated | Generated |
Stop in the square and take in the market hall: an old iron structure under a bold modern roof, with stalls of fish and vegetables inside and bar counters spilling onto the pavement. Nobody here is in a hurry. Neighbours with shopping trolleys stop every few metres to talk, and the old men have the best seats in the sun.
The Mercat de la Barceloneta was first built in iron at the end of the nineteenth century, when the quarter was full of dockers and factory workers who needed to be fed. In 2007 it reopened after a thorough rebuilding by the architect Josep Miàs, who kept the old metal skeleton and added the new roof and glass, without turning it into a showpiece. It is still, above all, the place where Barceloneta does its shopping.
Now for the bomba. Picture a ball of mashed potato the size of a fist, filled with minced meat cooked with spices, rolled in breadcrumbs and fried until crisp. On top go two sauces: white allioli, garlic mayonnaise, and a fiery red sauce. It is Barceloneta's own contribution to Spanish bar food, and you will find it on counters all over the city now. A family tavern a few streets from here claims to have invented it in the 1950s, and nobody in the neighbourhood seems inclined to argue.
And why bomba, a bomb? Because of its shape, of course, and because of the spicy sauce that explodes in your mouth. But many people here will tell you it is also a dark joke about the city's past. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, anarchist bombs went off in Barcelona so often that it was nicknamed la Rosa de Foc, the Rose of Fire. A round black ball with a fuse of red sauce: Barcelona did not forget.
One bomba is a snack; two is a lunch; three is a mistake you will not regret. When you are ready, walk east along the street towards the sea again, to a small square near the promenade with a fountain dedicated to the greatest dancer this shore ever produced.