26 Jan 2009

10 Jan 1989 - Markets

It’s raining when we wake up and still raining at 3 pm. so we don't get much watching done. It was a reasonable excuse to get caught up on more notes and drawings.

Despite the rain, I walk to the market in Setubal. Since our arrival in Portugal, our eating habits have undergone a profound change: a change for the healthier, cheaper, and more in line with our change in lifestyle.

I had always resented the time taken to pre­pare fresh vegetables, hated the amount of waste that seemed to end up in the bin, was unimpressed with the washed out-flavour, and dreaded seeing food go off before the next shopping day. Salva­tion had come in the form of a freezer and once a month shopping ‑ no waste and hardly any prepara­tion time. With frozen or tinned vegetables gen­erally available in northern Europe, I had taken the same line, and anyway, with limited space in the camper I did not want the hassle of preparing fresh vegetables.

In northern Portugal we had seen people sit­ting by the side of the road selling veg­etables and fruit. Jim persuaded me to buy some. I think we just had onions, carrots, potatoes and cauliflower at first. We could not spare water, or gas, to boil them, so I experimented. Take a plateful of veg­etables and slice thinly, wipe a non‑stick pan with a smear of oil and put every­thing in over a high flame, put on the lid, turn down the heat, shake the pan frequently to prevent burning, and let the food cook in its own steam. Within ten minutes it was all cooked, and ready for a sprinkling of salt and herbs. We agreed they were the best vegetables we had ever had, and I'm still cooking that way.

I even got to like shopping in markets. There is an incredible array of fruit and veg­etables available and, in fishing towns like Setu­bal, an incredible variety of fish too. We really need a field guide to the fish of market stalls! Squid and octopus do not appeal to us, but we often have sardines at twenty pence a kilo.

Having time to wander around the market, and finding food so cheap that it did not really mat­ter which stall it came from, made shopping more pleas­ant. By buying only one or two items from each stall, I could keep track of what I was spend­ing ‑ at 260 escudos to a pound sterling, prices could get confusing. Language was no problem, it was just a matter of pointing at something and asking for half or one kilo.

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