Food Markets Worth Planning a Day Around
A covered market tells you in twenty minutes what a region eats, what is in season and what it costs. It is the most efficient cultural visit available, and lunch is included.
7 min read
How to use a market properly
Walk the whole thing once before buying anything. Note what appears on many stalls, because that is what is in season and local. Note what is wrapped and imported, because that is not.
Then buy small: a hundred grams of cheese, three pieces of fruit, one pastry. Stallholders are used to it, and you get to taste six things instead of committing to one.
Markets with stalls that cook
Mercado de San Miguel in Madrid is polished and expensive. Mercado de Triana in Seville is neither and is better. Bolhao in Porto has been renovated and still functions as a real market. Athens Central Market has grill stalls in the meat hall that serve until late.
Bologna's Mercato delle Erbe and Florence's Sant'Ambrogio both have counters where a plate of pasta at 13:00 costs less than a coffee on a main square.
- Mercato delle Erbe, Bologna: pasta counters and excellent produce
- Mercado de Triana, Seville: local, cheap, best before 13:00
- Bolhao, Porto: fish, flowers, cheap lunch upstairs
- Omicho, Kanazawa: seafood, sashimi bowls at breakfast time
- Warorot, Chiang Mai: northern sausage, curry pastes, dried goods
Timing
Most European food markets are strongest between 08:00 and 12:00 and close entirely by 14:00 or 15:00. Sunday is usually closed, Monday is often quiet because fish deliveries do not arrive.
Asian markets run differently. Many are at their best in the early morning or after dark, and the midday hours are the dead zone.
Buying to bring home
Hard cheese, cured meat vacuum packed, oil in a tin rather than a bottle, dried pasta, spices and honey all travel well. Ask for it to be sealed for travel and it usually will be.
Check customs rules for your destination country carefully, particularly for meat and dairy crossing into the UK, the US or Australia, where restrictions are strict.
One habit worth copying
Buy your picnic at the market the morning of a travel day. A train lunch of bread, cheese, tomatoes and fruit costs about 8 EUR and is better than anything sold at a station.
It also means you arrive somewhere new without being ravenous, which is when bad restaurant decisions happen.
