Spain and Thailand both cook from the market. In both countries a lot of home cooking starts with a morning trip to buy that day's fish, meat and vegetables. The markets themselves work differently, though, and those differences show up in restaurant food. This post compares the two and ends with Spanish restaurants abroad that build their cooking around a market.
The Spanish mercado: one roof, many trades
Most Spanish towns and many city neighbourhoods have a mercado municipal, a covered market owned by the town. Inside, stalls are split by trade. The carnicería sells meat, the pescadería fish, the frutería fruit and vegetables, and the charcutería cured meats and cheese. Shoppers move from stall to stall rather than buying everything in one place.
A few of these markets are famous. La Boqueria sits off La Rambla in Barcelona. The Mercado Central in Valencia opened in 1928 in a large modernista building. Madrid's Mercado de San Miguel is an iron-and-glass hall from 1916 that reopened in 2009 as a place to eat and drink rather than shop. Our post on Spanish food markets goes into more detail.
One habit surprises visitors. Queues at a busy stall are often not lines at all. You walk up and ask ¿quién es el último? (who's last?), and when that person is served, it's your turn.
Cocina de mercado: cooking from the morning's shopping
Spanish restaurants use the phrase cocina de mercado, market cooking, for a menu that changes with what the market had that morning. In practice it means daily specials on a board, fish named by species rather than "catch of the day", and vegetables that follow the season. Many markets also have small bars inside, where the cook buys from neighbouring stalls and serves it at the counter. The weekday menú del día often works the same way.
The Thai talat: early mornings and cooked food
In Thailand, the everyday market is the talat sot, the fresh market. It opens early, often before dawn, and it sells meat, fish, vegetables, herbs, curry pastes and fruit. Unlike most Spanish markets, a big share of the trade is ready-cooked food. Vendors sell curries, soups, stir-fries and sweets in bags or boxes for people to take home and eat with rice.
Thailand also has night markets, which sell a lot of food to eat on the spot, and floating markets, or talat nam, such as Damnoen Saduak outside Bangkok. In Bangkok, Or Tor Kor market near Chatuchak is known for high-quality produce and prepared food.
What the two have in common, and what they don't
In both countries you usually pick a whole fish and ask the vendor to clean it. In Spain that habit carries over to restaurants that sell seafood by weight.
The big difference is where the cooking happens. A Spanish market bar cooks to order at the counter, while a Thai market sells much of its food already cooked, to take away. Spanish markets are usually covered municipal buildings with fixed stalls. Thai fresh markets range from covered halls to street markets that set up for a few hours.
You can see this in restaurants too. Spanish market cooking turns up as daily specials. Thai market food turns up as the dishes themselves: the same curries and noodles sold at the stalls.
Where to try Spanish market cooking abroad
These restaurants in our directory say in their own records that they work from a market or are inspired by one:
- Tapa del Toro, Copenhagen: a tapas bar inside a market hall, with daily specials cooked from what it finds at the market.
- El Rincón, Melbourne: in the Queen Victoria Market, run by Chef Manuel Jimenez-Navarro and based on his grandmother's recipes.
- Soleado, London: at Mercato Mayfair on North Audley Street, aiming to revive the Spanish market-restaurant tradition.
- Mercado 505, Shanghai: inspired by the bustle of a Spanish mercado since 2018 and describing itself as a market-to-table concept, with open-fire paella and a wide cheese selection.
- Galerna, Paris: small plates based on market-fresh products, drawing on the chef's native La Rioja.
For the Thai side, our guide to Spanish food in Bangkok lists Spanish restaurants in the city.
