It's a winter Friday, and in the Empordà region, signs indicating it's garoinada season are everywhere, especially at the roundabouts leading into the villages. In Palafrugell, on market Saturday, they only have one stall. They've put up a sign saying they're from Palamós, that they sell them for 21 euros per kilo (between twelve and twenty depending on the weight), and the curious thing is that they've spelled their name with extreme correctness. garoínasThey are small, as the restorers in the area tell me, smaller in diameter than usual in other years (they must be 5 cm), but I cannot check if they are empty or full because they are closed, of course.

"Your uncle had such a good time, with his diving suit and rifle," my aunt says. "Now he wouldn't fish even with a rod. He's seen how the sea has been emptied of fish, and he thinks it's a crime."