The Flavour of Madrid...

I abhore supermarkets with a passion. I find them so clinical, depressing and not to mention expensive! The vegetables go off in a couple of days and are usually fairly tasteless. They maybe convenient, but I try to avoid the supermarket whenever I can.

A friend of mine introduced me a couple of months ago to the market hall - I large hall filled with different stalls selling everything from fresh vegetables to game. You could pretty much buy everything you want fresh here and at half the price, and do it in a way that is not only a sensory experience but interesting and with an atmosphere full of character and Madrileño charm.

I live on the south side of town, just off La Latina. But "El Mercado de Maravillas", which translates charmingly as "The Market of Marvels", sounds like something out of 1001 nights is the best in Madrid and the cheapest. I have been to other food markets but this one is my favourite. I even take the #3 bus all the way from Puerta Toledo to Cuatro Caminos every saturday morning to shop at this wonderful place. The bus journey itself can be a pleasure as it passes through the centre of Madrid and you get a free tourist trail thrown in! Within half an hour I arrive at this Market of Marvels and am ready to do my shopping.




Although there are many bars to tempt you to a nice caña with a bit of Paella or preserved peppers before you engage in doing your weekly shop. For about 1.80€ you can get a nice little beer with a small pincho of Paella to give you that energy to shop. Now doesn't that sound like so much more fun than going to the supermarket?

My first port of call is the vegetable stall at the back of the market. This is owned by latinos and caters to the latin community of the area. There are an incredibly wide range of delicious and fresh vegetables at very low prices! I come away with kilos of delicious fruit and veg of all colours for under 15€!! You can get a kilo of artichokes for 1.50€, fresh ripe tomatoes, chilis, tender avocados that melt in the mouth, shiny red apples, juicy and sweet oranges to make your own juice with, basil that is so aromatic you can smell it a mile off.



You want some cheese? Next door there is a fine cheesery selling all sorts of different Iberian Cheeses, Manchego, Queso de Cabra (Goats cheese), cured old cheeses in olive oil, Queso Fresco, Blue Cheeses the lot.

There are stalls of Butchers selling you every part of the animal from beef to even game so fresh it has not been skinned or plucked yet. There are fish mongers with a choice of every type of marine crustacian and fish so shiny and fresh.

After the veggie stall I head to the counter for my delicious marinated olives and roasted peppers. I come away with kilos of legumes and beans, nuts, dried fruits and Valencian rice to make paella or risotto with. The olives are simply to die for! They have every type, size, colour in wonderful marinades. A simple and delicious luxury to have later on your long saturday lunch with some crusty bread, artichokes, and a glass of good Rioja.

You can buy incredible loose tea with all sorts of tempting smells and flavours. Fresh baguettes and breads of different grains, shapes and sizes. Everything! This market is just a sensual delight of colours, smells, tastes and people. It is wonderful to pick out your food and to interact with a real human. Having them recognise you and chat with you after the many weeks of your weekly loyalty. Its truly marvelous and fun! Then to go home and cook wonderful and tasty meals for the week with such sublime ingredients.

Ditch the supermarket and tv dinners! Go to the market and buy and eat some real food!

Eating vegetarian in Spain

Its so hard being vegetarian in continental Europe, meat is such a dominant part of the cuisine that a lot of people (until recently anyway) would see vegetarianism as being something alien and wierd. Some countries are easier than others, most northern european countries despite having a very meat based local cuisine are accepting of vegetarianism, in Germany, Holland and the UK its easy to find places that cater to vegetarians. Eastern Europe I found to be the worst as my Hungarian family believe a chicken counts as vegetarian!

Southern Europe too is pretty hard, however Italy and Greece do have some lovely vegetarian local dishes. Spain most of the food is centric around meat and fish. I have made my life easier by being a pescatrian (I have a reaction to pork and just dont like meat), but 90% of my diet is vegetarian since I only really like fish in form of sushi.

Asides from cooking vegetarian for myself I have made an effort to try to find good eateries in Madrid that cater to vegetarians.

My first and favourite place, is also my only excuse for a fast food venture is the chain restaurant knowns as Maoz Vegetarian, specialising in the falafel. This place does not just cater to fast food for veggies, but also healthy fast food for anyone wanting a more nutritious option than Maccy D's. They are originally a Dutch chain, however you can find a couple of branches in Madrid and Barcelona. For under 4€ you can get either a falafel salad (consisting of 3 falafel balls and salad from their delicious salad bar) or a pitta bread with falafel and salad. The best bit is you can go back to the salad bar as much as you want and you get a delicious, healthy and 100% vegetarian (or vegan meal even depending on your salad bar choice) meal really cheaply. There is one located in Calle Mayor just off the Puerta del Sol and another in Calle Horteleza just of Gran Via. Maybe others exist but this I do not know about this.

Looking for some spanish tapas but daunted by the amount of meat and non vegetarian dishes to offer? Well I have some help for you. Near Cuatro Caminos there is a lovely new tapas bar called Cueva de Bandoleros which has been recently opened. And by tapas I mean the traditional buy a glass of wine or a beer and get a free little tapa. To make matters better you can chose your tapas when you order a drink. Now before my vegetarians had some problems there since none of the food included was previously veggie. However after pursuading the chef (a really lovely guy!) to include more of the herbivore market in his establishment he will now do vegetarian tapas on request. And it is fabulous. He really made an effort at creating new dishes to cater for us: garlic mushrooms, vegetable stews with wonderful spices, vegetarian revueltos (scrambled egg dishes with other stuff included in it). So if you ever go in there and order a drink, mention you are vegetarian and you will get something tasty and spanish and veggie. Also with 3 glasses of beer you will no longer be hungry and have spent about 6€! Not a bad deal eh?

Finally I want to talk about some fine vegetarian dining. The other day me and friend wanted to find a good vegetarian restaurant to do some elegant dining at. Well just off Recoletos we found a lovely place called La Galette II (there is another near calle Serrano). This is a lovely elegant yet homely restaurant with a wonderful vegetarian menu at good prices. Sure some things made us laugh as a one of their veggie dishes included bacon and another tuna, but asides from that it was above board. The cooking was great and we had a lovely dinner. Nothing was to be complained about. They do a menu in English so can double check it. They also do a non vegetarian menu so its a good place to go with any carnivorous friends of yours. The atmosphere was lovely, elegant and classy without being snooty. Could take a date, your parents, friend or more than one friend there and it would still be great. Highly recommended.

Dinner - somewhere cheap, beautiful with tasty food?

No problem! With all the restaurants in Madrid you dont need to settle for a place which is cheap and nasty, or expensive or beautiful, or with great food with the view of a nice busy road. I was doing a course in Madrid (yes I know I live here, but I just finished an interuniversity course which took me all over Spain, one course being in Madrid) and on one night with a group of my friends from the course we naturally wanted some dinner.

We tried to get a table in the Museo del Jamon off Puerta del Sol but at 11pm they told us it was due to close soon. A dilema! However we are blessed by the multitude of fast food shops around the area, including the wonderful Moaz Falafels (a vegetarian fast food place with is tasty, cheap and relatively healthy) and if you want more traditional you can pick up a cured ham and cheese sandwich from the museo del jamon.

We all went to our fast food place of our choice (me - I took the tasty falafel salad!) and took our food to the plaza Oriente. This is right in the centre in between the Opera house and the Palacio Real. Now who can complain with a view like this:



We were infact seated on the benches at the foot of the statue pictured. It was lovely to sit there eating our cheap fast food of our choice with a spectacular view where a restaurant would have charged us 20% for the pleasure. It was awesome!



I highly recommend it to anyone who fancies a nice picnic in the city centre. Maybe with a date? I could imagine this being highly romantic on a lovely moonlit summers night.