Mercado Central

Back to Spain – and the great Valencia market

Back to Spain – and the great Valencia market

Since flying back from Paris in early February 2020, we basically stayed home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Over the last two years, we got fully vaccinated and boosted, washed our hands raw, and wore KN95 masks everywhere except in open spaces. We continued to test negative after a few close exposures to COVID-19, so all the precautions seemed to be working. (Fingers crossed.) It was time to return to Europe. As soon as we began looking for an apartment in Spain, one jumped out at us. It was in Valencia (visitvalencia.com), a city we wanted to know better but where we had already discovered that the food was fantastic. When we saw a spacious one-bedroom literally across the street from the Mercado Central, we leapt at...Read More

Shopping in Valencia for paella tools and ingredients

[caption id="attachment_608" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Mercado Central, Valencia"][/caption] After tasting paella at La Pepica (see previous post) , we were able to identify the essential ingredients and seasonings we needed to bring home to recreate the dish. The best place to shop for in Valencia for paella fixings is the soaring Modernista train-shed of the Mercado Central (Tel: 963-829-101. www.mercadocentralvalencia.es, open 7:30 a.m.–2:30 p.m. Monday–Saturday). It’s one of the largest fresh markets in Spain, perhaps because the area around Valencia is intensively agricultural. The subtropical climate not only permits year-round cultivation of greens and legumes, the swampy lagoons are also home to some of Spain’s most prized rice plantations. You cannot take home the fresh veggies, but you can bring the heirloom rice, the spices, and...Read More