VIDEO: 12 unique things about shopping in a Spanish supermarket
Mountains of ham, rivers of olive oil and lakes of wine: that is what to expect when you go shopping in a Spanish supermarket.
But in a world where globalization is increasingly eroding cultural individualism, what makes supermarket shopping different in Spain than anywhere else in the world?
James Blick and his Spanish wife, Yolanda Martin appear together regularly on their Spain Revealed YouTube channel and have clocked up more than 350,000 hits alone for their video exploring a supermarket in Madrid.
Readers' tips: Which supermarket in Spain is the best to shop at
Here's what they found out.
Within the aisles you'll come across a jamon jungle
“It’s like walking through a ham jungle,” explains Blick, a New Zealander who moved to Madrid with his Spanish wife, Yolanda, eight years ago and co-founded the hugely successful Devour Tours.
In the jamon section it’s possible to find every kind of ham product, from the cheapest at €30 to the premium, all singing and dancing Jamon Belota de Iberica of Cinco Jotas for €569 that comes with a special ham cutting knife in a beautiful presentation box.
Expect to find two or three aisles of a large supermarket dedicated to pork products, explains Blick.
Catch of the day, even far from the coast
Even if you are nowhere near the sea, most decent supermarkets will have a dedicated fish and seafood counter to rival a quayside fish market.
Offering everything from frozen sea snails and shrink wrapped razor clams to fake baby eels, the employees behind the counter will give advice on what’s good for what, and how to cook it.
Got milk?
An enormous part of every supermarket is dedicated to UHT milk. Whereas as fresh milk will be contained within just one shelf in the refridgerated section, it is cartons of the diary product that is pre-treated at high temperatures that most Spaniards will buy.
Pigs snout and skinned rabbit.
From packets of skinned rabbits to vacuum packed pigs ears, and a pair of pig snouts, the fresh meat section has as many different cuts as you'd find at a village matanza.
Ready meals?
If you don’t feel like attempting to cook up a Spanish classic yourself, then there’s always ready made canned stews.
Traditional favourites include Cocido Madrileño, Callos or fabada.
Spain sells terrible coffee
If you are a coffee connoisseur, then buy Natural over Mezcla and avoid Torrefacto at all costs!
The best thing since sliced bread?
For breakfast, there’s donuts, magdalenas and pan de leche. Sliced bread can be kept for days before it goes mouldy. And there really is a bestselling brand called Bimbo!
Potato chip flavours are different
Potato chips – or crisps for those who grew up in the UK –are different in Spain. For starters, there is a big selection of Jamon flavour, even gourmet jamon iberico flavour for those with superior taste buds and a budget to match
Or you could try “ajo and perejil” – garlic and parsley flavour. Spain even has a “huevo frito” – fried egg - flavour.
Tinned seafood is a delicacy
It’s very likely that before you came to Spain, a tin of sardines or a can of tuna were about as far as you ever went in the conserved seafood department. In which case, you have a whole treasure trove of tinned delicacies to discover!
Start with mejillones – mussels – and work your way through razor clams and cockles to octopus tentacles and squid in its own ink.
Olive Oil
Spain makes around half the world’s olive oil and this section of the supermarket can be rather overwhelming
For €3,59 per litre for the cheapest to the very pricey organic boutique extra olive oil at more than €8.60 for half a litre tin.
You could spend hours here trying to work out which one to buy.
Brand names can be hilarious… and sometimes racist.
To get your clothes clean, buy Colon. For bread, Bimbo is best and coffee could end up driving you bonkas. Look out for those brand names that simply wouldn’t translate well back home.
Spain sells a popular brand of candy called Conguitos. That translates as “little people from the Congo” or something, and in case you were in any doubt as to what they mean, the characters on the cover are chubby black babies with big red lips.
You can buy wine for €0.90 a litre!
Blick found Elegido - The chosen one - that sells for just €1.96 a litre.
Supermarkets aren’t the best place to buy wine, we would recommend making a trip to the source and visit the bodegas themselves!
But a supermarket does offer a huge selection from the cheapest cartons of plonk at 90 cent a litre to the top of the range 2005 vintage of Vega Sicilia at €259.
Blick recommends spending over €6 to get a pretty decent bottle.
James Blick is the co-founder of Devour Tours and hosts the YouTube channel Spain Revealed. Follow his adventures on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to his videos.
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But in a world where globalization is increasingly eroding cultural individualism, what makes supermarket shopping different in Spain than anywhere else in the world?
James Blick and his Spanish wife, Yolanda Martin appear together regularly on their Spain Revealed YouTube channel and have clocked up more than 350,000 hits alone for their video exploring a supermarket in Madrid.
Readers' tips: Which supermarket in Spain is the best to shop at
Here's what they found out.
Within the aisles you'll come across a jamon jungle
“It’s like walking through a ham jungle,” explains Blick, a New Zealander who moved to Madrid with his Spanish wife, Yolanda, eight years ago and co-founded the hugely successful Devour Tours.
In the jamon section it’s possible to find every kind of ham product, from the cheapest at €30 to the premium, all singing and dancing Jamon Belota de Iberica of Cinco Jotas for €569 that comes with a special ham cutting knife in a beautiful presentation box.
Expect to find two or three aisles of a large supermarket dedicated to pork products, explains Blick.
Catch of the day, even far from the coast
Even if you are nowhere near the sea, most decent supermarkets will have a dedicated fish and seafood counter to rival a quayside fish market.
Offering everything from frozen sea snails and shrink wrapped razor clams to fake baby eels, the employees behind the counter will give advice on what’s good for what, and how to cook it.
Got milk?
An enormous part of every supermarket is dedicated to UHT milk. Whereas as fresh milk will be contained within just one shelf in the refridgerated section, it is cartons of the diary product that is pre-treated at high temperatures that most Spaniards will buy.
Pigs snout and skinned rabbit.
From packets of skinned rabbits to vacuum packed pigs ears, and a pair of pig snouts, the fresh meat section has as many different cuts as you'd find at a village matanza.
Ready meals?
If you don’t feel like attempting to cook up a Spanish classic yourself, then there’s always ready made canned stews.
Traditional favourites include Cocido Madrileño, Callos or fabada.
Spain sells terrible coffee
If you are a coffee connoisseur, then buy Natural over Mezcla and avoid Torrefacto at all costs!
The best thing since sliced bread?
For breakfast, there’s donuts, magdalenas and pan de leche. Sliced bread can be kept for days before it goes mouldy. And there really is a bestselling brand called Bimbo!
Potato chip flavours are different
Potato chips – or crisps for those who grew up in the UK –are different in Spain. For starters, there is a big selection of Jamon flavour, even gourmet jamon iberico flavour for those with superior taste buds and a budget to match
Or you could try “ajo and perejil” – garlic and parsley flavour. Spain even has a “huevo frito” – fried egg - flavour.
Tinned seafood is a delicacy
It’s very likely that before you came to Spain, a tin of sardines or a can of tuna were about as far as you ever went in the conserved seafood department. In which case, you have a whole treasure trove of tinned delicacies to discover!
Start with mejillones – mussels – and work your way through razor clams and cockles to octopus tentacles and squid in its own ink.
Olive Oil
Spain makes around half the world’s olive oil and this section of the supermarket can be rather overwhelming
For €3,59 per litre for the cheapest to the very pricey organic boutique extra olive oil at more than €8.60 for half a litre tin.
You could spend hours here trying to work out which one to buy.
Brand names can be hilarious… and sometimes racist.
To get your clothes clean, buy Colon. For bread, Bimbo is best and coffee could end up driving you bonkas. Look out for those brand names that simply wouldn’t translate well back home.
Spain sells a popular brand of candy called Conguitos. That translates as “little people from the Congo” or something, and in case you were in any doubt as to what they mean, the characters on the cover are chubby black babies with big red lips.
You can buy wine for €0.90 a litre!
Blick found Elegido - The chosen one - that sells for just €1.96 a litre.
Supermarkets aren’t the best place to buy wine, we would recommend making a trip to the source and visit the bodegas themselves!
But a supermarket does offer a huge selection from the cheapest cartons of plonk at 90 cent a litre to the top of the range 2005 vintage of Vega Sicilia at €259.
Blick recommends spending over €6 to get a pretty decent bottle.
James Blick is the co-founder of Devour Tours and hosts the YouTube channel Spain Revealed. Follow his adventures on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to his videos.
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