To Market in Seville
Tell me how you shop and I tell you who you are.
If you come from a country north of the Great Cultural Shopping Divide (i.e. a country where most shopping is done in supermarkets), you have probably felt the urge to experience a “native” street market on a visit to a Latin country.
For some, this can become an obsession. I have met Americans who had come to Paris simply to visit as many street and farmers markets as they could possibly fit into a week-long stay. (If it’s Wednesday, it must be the Marche d’Aligre.)
While many would probably find that a trifle excessive, markets unquestionably do reveal something about the town and the town’s inhabitants that would be difficult to uncover in any other way.
A Market in Seville
Which is why, on our recent trip to Seville, we took a little detour on our walk through the Old Town to go to Calle Feria to go to market in Seville in its oldest indoor market, Mercado de Feria(following a tip from @scannerFM).
Sevillanos have been shopping here for hundreds of years. It’s a fun place, bustling, busy and colourful …
… and the Cantina inside the building is an extremely popular place for foodies who come to market.
Unfortunately, we arrived at the Mercado de Feria on a full stomach, having been unable to resist the temptations of another market we had passed on the way, a “Roman fair” on Alameda Square taking place on the week-end we were there.
The attitude of the Spanish to the food they consume, I believe, can be best described as “refreshingly unsqueamish”.
It’s not that people who live north of the Great Food Culture Divide do not eat dead animals. It’s just that they would rather not know.
In a market in Seville, tell me how you eat and I tell you where you stand on that.
We also went walking in Seville and discovered a different Christmas Market.
