If you’re a regular follower of our adventures, you’ll know that we always explore grocery stores and food markets. Not least because they have food! In some places we find just a few, in others an abundance. Seville belongs to the latter category. In fact, at least half a dozen grocery stores and two markets lie within a ten-minute walk of our flat. There are also several butchers, fishmongers, cheese-mongers, fruit-and-veggie stands, and bakeries. Great news: Sevillans seem to love food as much as we do.
Our nearest grocery store, a good-sized Mas, has a great bakery at the entrance, a small fish counter, a butcher, and a good selection of cheese. We are loving the manchego-like cheeses, and especially giant wodges of soft goat’s cheese. The liquor section is surprisingly large, occupying about 15% of the whole store. The sherry section is extensive, the varieties bewildering. There’s a chart that explains it all but we are still deciphering it. And there are tons of bottles and boxes of wine and sangria. We’re on a rosé kick, and they’ve all been excellent!
We’re close to the water, so seafood is abundant and spectacular (more on this soon!). We’ve been loving the shrimp, mussels, clams, swordfish, calamari, and tuna, all of which are pretty cheap.
And then there are the hams. They are everywhere. In our local (smaller) Mas, there is an entire aisle of them. They are of various shapes and sizes, and some cost hundreds of euros. If only our flat had the carving stand we see everywhere, we’d be tempted to get one! Luckily, there are dozens of pre-packaged varieties of Iberian ham in another part of the store. And every restaurant also has ham of several kinds. (More on ham soon too!)
The sheer quantity, and variety, of olives, olive oil and garbanzo beans are also surprising. (In the picture below you will notice not only the very large containers of olive oil but also, if you look carefully, that they are sold by varietal!)
The basement of the department store El Corte Ingles has a vast grocery store that reminded us of Stockmann’s in Helsinki. It’s not as grand, but it does have an immense variety of interesting and exciting foods. Also, two aisles of hams.
We’re also fortunate to have two covered markets close to our flat. The closer one, the Mercado del Arenal, is a small market with several vegetable stalls, two bakers, two fishmongers, and a butcher shop. There are also a few restaurants. It’s a bit sleepy, but perfect for when we don’t feel like braving the crowds.
And crowds are certainly to be found at the Mercado de Triana, just over the Guadalquivir river. We’ve seen some negative reviews of the place, but we love it! It’s a mixture of small restaurants and individual stalls, and we’ve found great fruits, vegetables, fish, and cheese there. The restaurant where we had lunch was also great (mussels and paella). And there’s even a cooking school which we’re thinking about trying.
So: no need to worry about us when it comes to food in Seville. We’ll manage, what with grocery stores and food markets everywhere. Indeed, what we’ve seen so far is extraordinary, and we suspect that there are more delights to be discovered.
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