Valencia, Spain - last Sunday market.

This week is one "last" after another. After all my walking on Saturday, the only thing on my agenda was to go to the Canet Sunday market and get an artichoke. They have piles of them here in the markets and I have never known what to do with them  I have eaten asiago and artichoke dip (one of my favorites) and eaten pickled artichoke hearts in a jar, from Costco. But I have never dealt with one myself, Fi outlined her Mum's recipe and I did some looking at internet recipes and decided it was time.

Super windy day. I love it when the wind blows the spray off the top of the waves.

 

After taking a number and standing waiting for shoppers to finish (very entertaining) I asked for 1 artichoke. Nope, had to buy a kilo, they were only 1 Euro after all. Ok, 1 kilo of  alcachofa and 1 kilo kiwi amarillo, because I just can't resist them.

Then cuarto aceitunas con limon and cuarto aceitunas cocktail. 250 ml olives with lemon and 250 ml olive cocktail (olives, onions, carrots, gerkins). Can I eat that much in the 4 days I have left? I am going to try.

Finally an apple slice. I didn't even try in Spanish, just pointed and paid.

A rather small Fallas, with an emphasis on taking care of the sea

I think really, just for the kids. Canet doesn't have a real organized neighbourhood feel so I was surprised to see even this.

But they still had the party tent with the food and the drinks!

This is a kilo of yellow kiwi and I did finish them.

This was a kilo of artichokes, and I didn't finish them.

I just took one, took off the lower leaves and peeled the stem. Its the one on the bottom.

Trimmed the top and the top of the leaves. I then steamed it until

the stem was tender and the petals pulled off easily. About an hour. It went a sort of dull purple colour.

I served it with a dip made of mayonnaise and balsamic vinaigrette.

I ate it by pulling off each petal, dipping it and then using my teeth to squeeze the "meat" out. It was pretty minimal. Hardly seemed worth the bother.

I cut the remaining bit in half, took out the fuzzy bit which is inedible, and ate the "choke" and the stem. They were quite tasty but still a lot of messyness to get to them.

The next morning my stomach was upset, so I decided artichokes weren't for me and threw the rest of them out.