earlyfish

Discovering Cartagena

More Articles By Phillip Bruce www.raxomnium.com

The Early Bird Catches The Fish.

Visiting Cartagena’s fish market means setting the alarm clock for 4am. For at least two and a half thousand years fishermen have been based in Santa Lucia, working the waters of the Mediterranean in search of the fish that are an essential part of the local diet.

The place is widely believed to be the place where Saint James, himself a fisherman, stepped ashore bringing Christianity to Spain. Saint James, or Santiago, is revered in Spain and is said to have arrived around 40AD. He spent seven years preaching and establishing the new religion before returning to Palestine where he was murdered by Herod Agrippa. His remains were supposedly brought back to Spain where they are the focus of the devotions and pilgrimages to Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain. Strangely, there is no pilgrimage route from Cartagena.

A statue of the Virgin Mary watches over the fishermen and the buyers at the Santa Lucia market and there is a tile picture of Jesus bearing a heavy cross. A plaque on a wall commemorates the 25^th procession of the brotherhood of the fishermen in Cartagena’s Easter devotions.

Thoughts of religion are in the background, however, as the buyers circle the boxes of fish packed in ice that are laid out on the floor of the market. A little café in a corner, where smoking is, of course, permitted, is busy with many people taking a morning Café Asiatico. This is the local heart starter and includes a slug of brandy, a shot of a local liqueur, espresso coffee, tinned milk, sugar, and a sprinkle of cinnamon.

A huge variety of fishes can be seen in the boxes, from tiny sardines called chirrete up to monsters of the deep. Each box is neatly labeled and computer coded. The buyers, most of whom are operators of fish shops around the town, inspect the offerings while outside in the night the fishing boats are tied up. There are large tuna, the small octopus calamares, bream known as dorada, and a case of fish with huge eyes, open and staring, that appear shocked to be there.

Fuel costs are hurting Cartagena’s fishermen badly and not too long ago there was a strike where they called for aid to preserve their traditional trade. However, since then prices have soared even higher.

Traditionally, the fishermen would make a delicious stew called a caldero, named after the iron pot in which it was cooked. Today this is a gourmet treat and it can occasionally be found on the menus of local restaurants.

The recipe calls for frying dried red peppers in oil. These are then taken out and set aside while garlic is fried in the same oil. Then the peppers and garlic are pounded together in a mortar, with lots of finely chopped parsley. Next onion and garlic are fried together. Then the pounded pepper and garlic is added, together with paprika, saffron and dried red peppers known as pimentos de bola. Potatoes are added to the mix, with sufficient water to cook them and the fish that is now put in. Everything is watched carefully as it simmers until cooked.

The fish and potatoes are then served and the remaining water is used to cook rice, so there are actually two dishes. The fish-flavoured rice is then served with alioli, which is a mayonnaise made with pounded garlic and olive oil.

At the market the buyers suddenly move forward to the boxes from the sides of the room where they have been waiting after their inspections of the boxes. A large electronic indicator board lights up. Each fisherman’s offerings are listed, with the name of the fish and the amount in kilos that is for sale. A price appears on the board and it starts to quickly reduce. The buyers are all equipped with hand-held electronic machines and the price continues dropping until someone pushes a button to make the purchase.

The most expensive fish one early morning appeared to be salmonette, a red-coloured fish. The indicator board opened at 15 euros a kilo and purchasers stepped in at the early stages around the 9.5 euros mark. However, later bidders had to hit their buttons a euro higher in order to be sure of supply. One type of fish which looked rather tasty only attracted buyers at 61 cents a kilo.

Once the buying is completed the boxes are quickly piled onto carts and taken out to the waiting vans outside to be sped away and laid out in time for inspecting by the demanding housewives of Cartagena at the fish shops.

Interestingly, one slightly derogatory name for people from Cartagena is aladroques. This stems from the word for little waste fish with big mouths that can’t be sold.

By Phillip Bruce

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Gary Smith Fishing