The town of Palamós has been a fishing port for many centuries and I got a firsthand look at the process of how fresh fish goes from the Palamós Port to your plate.
My visit to Palamós began at The Fishing Museum (Museu de la Pesca) located at the Palamos Port. I can’t claim being clever enough to coin the phrase “port to plate” myself; it was a catchy phrase used in a short video that runs through the history of fishing in Palamós in the museum’s theater. The museum also houses an exhibition of many artifacts and scale models of the various fishing techniques.
Just outside the museum at the port, hang around between 3pm – 6pm Tuesday – Saturday to see the fisherman coming back in from fishing with their catch. I watched in awe as the fisherman quickly sorted their catch into various bins, prepping for the Fish Auction. One fisherman cleaning a squid spotted me snapping away and proudly held the squid up!
Auction Haus
Remote used to bid
I was particularly fascinated by the Fish Auction. There’s no yelling at this auction (unless you count the one woman yelling at our group to leave since the auction is supposed to be closed to the public); restaurant and fish shop owners bid for various types of fish and seafood using an electronic remote. The price displays on a large screen hovering over a conveyor belt on which the bins of the day’s catch roll by.
Chef preparing mackerel
Mackerel in a sweet and sour vinegar sauce
In the gourmet kitchen, the chef prepared a special fish dish (snack) for us each to try completing our lesson on port to plate. I’m usually fairly picky with my fish, but the lightly breaded mackerel with a sweet and sour vinegar sauce was absolutely delicious!
We ended our visit to the port with a stroll around the Palamós Fish Market. You truly know the fish is fresh when the fish market doesn’t smell fishy in the least bit. Prawns, squids, lobsters, and monk fish all sat on beds of ice ready to be bought, brought home, and cooked up for someone’s dinner.
And there you have it! Port to plate.
Know Before You Go
- The Fish Museum is Tuesday to Sunday from 10am to 1:30pm and 3pm to 7pm.
- Exhibits at The Fish Musuem are explained in 5 languages: Catalan, Spanish, English, French and German.
- The Fish Museum has a viewing window where you can observe the Fish Auction.
- The gourmet kitchen isn’t open daily as part of the museum visit, but cooking demonstrations are available for groups and schools.
Thank you to the Costa Brava Girona Tourism Board and The Fish Museum for hosting me. As always, all opinions are entirely my own.
Jennifer Dombrowski
Jennifer Dombrowski is a location independent globe trotter and bases herself in Prata di Pordenone, Italy. She works as a social media and innovation strategist in higher education and is a regular contributor on johnnyjet.com. Her website, jdombstravels.com, is the 2012 Destinology Travel Bloggy Best Newcomer award winner. Google+
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We’re Jennifer and Tim and We love adventure and we love wine, so we often try to combine the two! By day, you’ll find us out on some crazy adventure like snorkeling in Iceland in winter, but by night, we’re creatures of comfort. We both work full time, so we bring you practical tips for how anyone can fit travel into their busy lives – just like us! So far, we've visited 43 countries, lived in the United States and Italy, and Tim has lived in Korea. And we do it all while both holding down full time jobs. 
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4 comments
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Ele
October 22, 2012 at 7:15 pm (UTC 2) Link to this comment
That was a great post. I recently turned to fish, trying to cut down on meat. I love the last photo especially
Ele recently posted..Trys Vilniaus dienos
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Jennifer Dombrowski Reply:
October 22nd, 2012 at 7:46 pm
Thanks, Ele! Fish is very good for you. I should really try to eat it more often myself. I am having lemon pepper poached tilapia for dinner tonight!
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isaacoomber
November 5, 2012 at 10:36 am (UTC 2) Link to this comment
Wow, great post, guys.
[Reply]
Jennifer Dombrowski Reply:
November 11th, 2012 at 8:32 pm
Thank you! It was really great to see the whole process of how fresh fish goes from the fishing boat to your plate.
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