Saturday, January 20, 2007

Do outdoor pet stores fascinate you too?

This is an outdoor pet store in Barcelona. Las Ramblas, the main pedestrian street of the city that runs from the middle of the downtown to the Mediterranean, is loosely organized into different sales areas: there's the flower sales area, the tourist crap sales area, the street performer area, and the outdoor pet store area. Actually, the outdoor pet store area is pretty much at the beginning of the street and was thus one of the first things that I saw in Barcelona. I was then and remain today completely baffled by this phenomena.

As you may or may not be able to see from the pictures, these are pretty much fully functional pet stores. They've got toys, cedar chips, fish nets, leashes, food--pretty much the whole shabang. And they have a surprisingly wide array of pets: fish, bunnies, turtles, gerbils, hamsters, etc.

And then there are the "specialty" store. I noticed that one outdoor pet store seemed to have pounced on the niche market of poultry and fowl. They had a pretty decent assortment of not only chickens and roosters, but also quails and the kind of birds that you really only think about in connection with rich British people wearing smart hunting jackets, sleek boots, and of course a hat, accompanied by teams of well-trained dogs on some kind out for a hunt on a brisk British day . . .

And then came the really and truly alarming part of the whole experience: they sell pigeons! Those dirty, idiotic birds that I do detest! Perhaps even worse than pigeons and people who feed pigeons (see the What's Not Hot list) are people who sell and buy pigeons.

So what do you think of the outdoor pet store? As previously mentioned, I'm completely captivated by the whole thing. Somehow it is just far enough outside of the realm of my known world to really tickle me.


Rhiannon said...

my hottness in leggings is nothing against yours in an unravelled touque!!!

Grandma said...

I don't believe I've ever SEEN an outdoor pet shop, Claire, but this one looks better-stocked than almost any indoor one I've visited. Just so long as they do NOT sell canines of any type, I'd like it! I agree, too, that pigeons are an extremely odd item to SELL!

Maria said...

Pigeons are gross and fairly ubiquitous in all metropoli, leading me to wonder who would buy one? You could just walk up two blocks to Plaza Catalunya and catch a gimpy one for free. But to what end?

Katie said...

Pigeon Pie
Serves 4-6

4-5 pigeons, drawn
salt and pepper
250g/8oz stewing beef
250g/8oz shortcrust pastry
beaten egg to glaze
2 tsp cornflour
300ml/10fl oz stock

1. preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.
2. Joint the birds into two breast joints and two leg joints each and stew the rest of the carcass in a little water to make stock for the gravy.
3. Cut the beef into small pieces and line a deep 20cm/8in pie dish with these.
4. Lay the pigeon joints on top, cover with water, add salt and pepper, then cover the pie dish with greased paper or aluminium foil. Place in the oven and simmer for 1½ hours.
5. Remove from the oven and raise oven temperature to 200C/400F/Gas 6
6. Cover the pie with the shortcrust pastry, brush the top with beaten egg, put back into the oven and bake until the pastry is golden brown.
7. Make a gravy by mixing 10g/2tsp cornflour with a little cold water and add to 300ml/10fl oz of the warmed stock. Allow to thicken while stirring, season and serve with the pie.

Zosia said...

Oh, Katie, why did you post that brilliant and horrifying post, WHY? I feel my breakfast surging up from my belly....*shudder*
This brings me to recall my lunchtimes in Paris in a square by my school. There was this flock of pigeons that used to hang there, and I'm pretty sure it was always the same flock, because one of them had a hideously deformed stump of a know the fleshy pink part of the foot? It was all gnarled in on itself, so the bird had to drag itself along on its one good leg....Eeeeep so many bad memories. So many lunches ruined! I apologize, but I had to share my pigeon-hatred with fellow pigeon-haters.

Rhiannon said...

i agree with zosia - parisian pigeons are the worst!

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