a mercado is a neighborhood market that sells fresh produce, meats and fishes, fruit, and everything in between, including speciality shops with hams, breads, spices, etc. and casual sit-down restaurants. each neighborhood has a mercado and each mercado is unique in both offerings, price points, and aesthetic.
depending on which neighborhood mercado, you can typically find groceries at better prices (local prices instead of tourist prices) than a traditional grocery store. you can also find items they don’t usually carry in grocery stores, such as napa cabbage and green onions as well as ingredients from south american countries.
it’s always a sensory experience to step in to a new mercado because you never know what you will find. this particular mercado off the main drag of madrid, gran via, has plenty of peruvian merchants and the main reason we go there is to eat at a peruvian restaurant upstairs, operated by none other than, chinese-peruvians (like the one i’m married to).
