The fish stalls
The Galician coast's catch, fresh each morning.
juantiagues — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Lmbuga — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Lmbuga — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Luis Miguel Bugallo Sánchez — CC BY-SA 4.0
**A stone food market in eight parallel halls — and the city's second most visited place after the cathedral** — at the eastern edge of the old town. Its present form dates from **1941**, in granite, in a manner echoing the city's historic architecture — ⚠ **so it is relatively modern but does not look it**. ✅ **It is a working market, not a display**: **fishwives from the coastal villages**, **octopus**, ***percebes* barnacles**, ***tetilla* cheese**, **and vegetables from farms nearby**; ⚠ **and most sellers are producers rather than middlemen**. ✅ **⚠ It offers a particular service**: **you buy fish or shellfish from a stall, carry it to a kitchen in the market, and they cook it for a small fee** — **and you eat it there**. ⚠ **It closes in the afternoon and on Sundays.**
The Galician coast's catch, fresh each morning.
Boiled octopus on a board with oil and paprika.
Kitchens that cook what you bought at the stalls.
Rua das Ameas, 15704 Santiago de Compostela, Spain
**Seafood above all — the region is among the best in Europe for it.** ✅ **First — *pulpo á feira***: **octopus boiled, cut with scissors and served on a wooden board** with olive oil, coarse salt and **smoked paprika (*pimentón*)**; ⚠ **eaten traditionally with a wooden pick rather than a fork**, **with bread and a little Ribeiro wine**. ✅ **Second — *percebes***: **gooseneck barnacles** — ⚠ **picked by hand off wave-battered rocks**, **a genuinely dangerous trade that has killed pickers**; ⚠ **hence the very high price**. ✅ **Third — shellfish**: **scallops (*vieiras*)** — ⚠ **whose shell is the symbol of the Camino itself**; **mussels (*mexillóns*)**, **and crab**. ✅ **Beyond the sea**: ***empanada*** — a filled pie of tuna or meat; **soft conical *tetilla* cheese**; **and *tarta de Santiago*** — **an almond cake with the cross of Santiago drawn on it in sugar**, ✅ **the city's own sweet**. ✅ **To drink**: **white *Albariño*** from the Rías Baixas — ⚠ **an exact match for the seafood**; **and *orujo* distilled afterwards**.
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