Food Shopping in Madrid
Exploring more than just supermarkets
In retrospect, we got pretty lucky with the location of our apartment in Madrid. While the apartment itself wasn’t quite right for us (but we made it work), it was 1.5 blocks from the metro and one street over from two supermarkets and the local market. The two supermarkets, Mercadona and Lidl, had most of what we typically try to stock our kitchen with:
Dairy: Eggs (pasture raised where we can find them, as there's a big difference from organic or even regular), milk, Greek yogurt, and cheese (of various types depending on what’s available)
Produce: Apples, bananas, greens of some sort (spinach or salad greens), avocados, tomatoes, potatoes, and anything else that looks good or is reasonably priced
Grains/bread/bulk: Fresh baguette and/or croissants, organic oats, maybe cereal or flour (for pancakes), walnuts and/or almonds
Drinks: Sparkling water and maybe a Coke Zero or two for me
Shelf: Natural peanut butter, honey, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, pasta/tomato sauce, syrup (if available)
Refrigerated: Chicken, ravioli, grass-fed beef (if available—mostly not, unfortunately)
But the real fun in food shopping is finding a local market and in Madrid there was a local market on the ground floor underneath the Mercadona—very convenient! So S and I wandered over one day to check it out before we did the rest of our grocery shopping. To start, we did a lap of the market to see what was there and what, if anything, we wanted to get.
S was enthralled with the butchers and the huge knives they used to cleave chunks of meat into smaller sections to sell. She wanted her own knife. Um, no! But maybe one day. We skipped the fishmongers, though there were many. We stopped at a cheesemonger and bought something that looked like manchego or maybe a pecorino romano. The man let us taste it and we liked it, so we bought some! We also bought some fresh pasta and a chunk of cake. It was so yummy (yes, he gave us a sample).
I decided I wanted some wine, so I simply asked for a recommendation at the wine stall. Then I realized I didn’t think the apartment kitchen had a wine opener, so I asked where we could get one and the vendor pointed us upstairs to the ferreteria; I thought that was the name of the wine opener, so I asked for that when we got to the little housewares market upstairs outside the supermarket. The man laughed and gestured, arms wide, encompassing the whole market: “This is the ferreteria!” Noted! New vocabulary word unlocked. (Learning in action.) I described what I needed, he pointed us to the options, we bought a wine opener, and headed on our way.
We had no idea whether any of the produce being sold at the stalls was organic, so we made choices as best we could. Signs weren’t clear and, while I could (and did) ask, I sometimes got vague answers. In truth, I’m not sure where any of the produce was sourced; it may not have been any better than what the supermarket had, but I’d like to believe it was and that it was supporting local merchants directly.
Anyway, I’ll take a local market any day over a supermarket. They’re usually lively and I could tell this one was frequented by locals, as the purveyors knew the patrons. We were perhaps the only foreigners there. I felt like I had gotten into a special club, LOL.
In addition to the local market, S and I discovered a fabulous bulk food store while out walking one afternoon/evening. It was also near our apartment, in the opposite direction from the Mercadona. It had a lovely selection of nuts, grains, spices, dried fruit, teas, coffees, and more. We had so much fun discovering what was there and a hard time limiting ourselves to buying just a few small items.
Unlike the US, where you can bag and tag your own items, we needed to have someone from the store do it for us, but it was easy. I wish we had discovered Casa Ruiz at the beginning of our trip. If you’re in Madrid, look it up! They have multiple locations and some in Barcelona, too.
Where to you tend to shop for food when you travel? What’s the best market you’ve been to around the world (anywhere)? What did you love about it?