Mercado de la Paz

Today I walked a few miles to the wealthy Salamanca neighborhood in Madrid. This neighborhood is to the north of the Parque del Buen Retiro, and is home to the fanciest stores in town (think: Prada, Gucci, and more).  There are also lots of financial buildings with men and women walking around in suits.

But as much as I wanted to pay 2000 euros for a dress (just kidding), I went to that neighborhood for another reason - the Mercado de la Paz.  This indoor food market was created in 1882 and has various different stands where people sell meat, fruit, veggies, olives (so good) and more. Some of the shops even served meals and had a few tables where you could sit and relax.

Here is a nice description (in Spanish) of the market: Mercado de la Paz - reading

I left with a handful of fresh Spanish green olives (manzanilla sevillana to be exact) and some gazpacho casero (homemade gazpacho = a cold, veggie soup). Despite being in the middle of the wealthiest neighborhood, the market was very traditional and the prices were reasonable.  I paid 2 euros for a decent size tub of gazpacho and 0,77 euros for about 20 fresh olives - not bad! 

Check out some of my photos below!

I bought my handful of olives from this stand:

                                                                Just some pig legs on the wall...

Thanks for reading!