Figuring out where to go and what to buy has been an adventure.
There are a lot of options for grocery shopping in our town. There are 3 main grocery stores: Super Sol, Mercadona, and Maskom.
Super Sol is where we do most of our shopping. Mainly because it it the closest (4 blocks walking), but we’ve also found that they have the best selection of things we want.
Mercadona is a big, shiny, new-looking store that is a 10 minute bike ride (luckily on the way to/from Oliver’s soccer).
It is our go-to for the only bacon like we have at home (more on that search in a future post).
Maskom is right next door to Oliver’s school. Their produce is awful, but they have the best cheddar we have found (this has also been quite a search), and the ham/cheese croissants Oliver likes for his school snack (all the Spanish kids all eat a ham baguette sandwich for their snack).
In addition to the supermarkets, we stop at Fruterías (for fruits and vegetables),
Carnicerías (for meat),
Panaderías (for bread and pastries)
La Casa de la Miel,
and the mercadillo (a Thursday only market, think Saturday Market plus Farmer’s market).
The mercadillo is where we get our regional almonds (yummm), dried hibiscus flowers for my morning tea (herbal tea just isn’t a thing here, except medicinally) and fresh local produce (our town is surrounded by fields of tomatoes, peppers, mangos, avocados, almonds and many other yummies).
Since we do not have a car, all of our shopping is done on bike or foot, so most of the time we don’t want to get too much (but we always end up getting more than planned).
If we want to do a big shopping we walk to Super Sol with our rolling bag, which everyone has here, but makes me feel like an old lady.
There are a few new things to learn to shop in Spain. First, you have to weigh all of your produce before going to the cash register.
If you forget, you have to run back to do the weighing, leaving everyone waiting. It makes you feel extra guilty since the checkout lines always take forever (I haven’t figured out why) and out of place (because no one else does it, but I’ve done it 4 times). Some stores, such as Super Sol, require a deposit to use the shopping carts. The carts are chained together and by inserting a 50¢, 1€ or 2€ coin, the chain will release. When you finish with your cart, coin is released by reinserting the chain.
Another tricky thing is that most grocery stores are closed on Sunday, and nothing opens before 9am on the other days. This means we have to remember to plan ahead so we don’t end up hungry on Sunday or Monday morning.
Shopping really isn’t my thing, but we seem to end up going to at least 2 stores every day. We’re trying to get better at meal planning, but there always seems to be something we need.
Adrift in Andalucía 