Braga Market

After visiting the Barcelos market last weekend, Ann and I decided to check out the Braga market this weekend.  Our first effort, to check out the permanent market on Friday (hey, we don’t like crowds), was a bust.  It’s mostly a flower market.  So we returned the next day and violá, the market was in full swing.  

If you recall from last week, the Barcelos market is one giant open market that covers the entire square.  Braga’s might be the same thing traditionally, but for now it isn’t.  Apparently (like Porto’s big permanent market area) Braga’s market area is undergoing renovation.  So instead they have a bunch of temporary shelters that are, as we found out on Friday, largely vacant.  But not on Saturdays.

In Barcelos most of the market area is for vegetables, fruits and flowers, with one big area reserved for clothing and stuff like that.  Braga’s market didn’t really have any goods that we could find.  But on one side of the street they had meats, fresh fish, and fresh baked items, and on the other side of the street vegetables, fruits and flowers.  Oh yeah, and chickens.  You can’t really see them in this photo, but the white tent on the left had a bunch of chicken cages.  And given the number of chickens (live ones, not statutes) that squawk at us on our morning walks, (ok, it is now 14:52, and I just heard a rooster crow from my office window . . . they’re all over the place!), this is where you buy your live chickens!

Ann and I were feeling adventurous, but not too adventurous.  We decided we would just stop at one stand and buy everything we were planning on getting (and then some) without having to go from place to place.  Since tomatoes were top of our list, we selected a woman’s stand that had the best tomatoes.  We got a kilogram of them (2.2 lbs).  She also had ginormous red peppers, so we got a couple of them.  And some good looking cucumbers.  And some leeks.  And fresh cilantro to boot.  

It cost us 2,40€ - about $2.85.

I think I know where we’ll be doing a bunch of our vegetable shopping.  Next time we’ll have to try some of the fruit!