The Central Market, located on Athinas Street in downtown Athens, is a huge double apsed cathedral-like structure. One apse is dedicated to meat and the other contains an endless procession of fish stalls. This historic landmark building has high clarestory windows that barely admit light to the ground floor. And, the market is so cavernous, that a series of bare bulbs are needed to light the stalls even on the brighest day. The artificial light blurs out of focus into the distance. The seafood in the foreground, on the other hand, is highlighed in clear focus – γαρίδες at 12.99€ per kilo.
A view from behind the scenes shows a blurry focus at the edges:
Word of warning: never wear sandles while buying fish here. The area is sluiced down regularly after an untold number of fish are gutted and filleted before being popped into a stiff paper cones and stuffed into a plastic bags ready to transport home.
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Central Market looks bustling. With different sections and stalls, sounds like there is something for everyone. Love the up-close shots of the seafood section – looking very fresh and delicious. That is a good point you made there on not wearing slippers there. When I was a kid I went to the market with my mum and some days I wore sandals…I remember it being a slippery affair and these days being a little older I won’t wear this kind of footwear to the food section of any market 🙂
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Wearing sandals in the fish market is definitely a no-no. I didn’t get my feet wet, but the person I came with refused (wisely) not to go in and explore or she would ruin her rather nice strappy sandals!
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Love a good fish market. Thanks for an insight into this one.
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The Central Market is a really good fish market. They get most things fresh that morning from the ports around Athens.
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There’s nothing better than a good old style market. At the Queen Victoria Market in Melbourne they used to skin the rabbits in front of the customers and a river of blood would flow across the concrete floor. Sadly they don’t allow such cheap thrills nowadays. 😉
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The same off-putting old style butchery can be said of the Oxford covered market. Durning game season, headless deer and feathered pheasant can be seen hanging from hooks around the butchers. Here in Athens some might cringe, but it is an interesting ‘ethnographic’ experience!
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Oh dear Deb, did you get wet fishy feet?:)
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No fishy feet for me, but my companion who was wearing rather nice sandals refused to enter…
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[…] we were at in the Athens Central Market with its endless fish stalls (as you can see in my post Fish Focus) in search of a good firm white fish that wouldn’t fall apart when cooked in a Sicilian style […]
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[…] to meat. The other half, the central part, is devoted to fish which I showed in a previous post, Fish Focus. The narrow corridors of the meat aisles are lined with glass fronted stalls with interior space […]
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