The Mercado Central is in old Valencia, across the street from the beautiful old Lonja silk exchange. Passing the coin-traders and stamp-sellers in front of the Lonja, we were led into the Mercado by the excellent metal parrot perched on the centre of its roof.
We visited the Mercado on a Monday morning, when most of Valencia’s other major buildings are closed. It is a wonderful old wrought-iron cage with glass walls, a roof, and an energetic buzz of selling activity. The main selling area is given over to a fantastic array of fruit and vegetables, with some cured meats and jarred foods having a smaller slice of the space available.
Having bought a couple of oranges (navel variety, not Valencian) to munch on, we enjoyed wandering among the small stands. While the displays of fruit and vegetables were very impressive, we found the cured ham and salted cod stands to be the most interesting. The ham hangs in stacked rows – making the whole stand seem to glow a reddish-brown – and is certainly an evocative sight.
We enjoyed watching little old ladies selecting salted cod from the stand selling cod and olives. There appeared to be a special on Labrador cod, but this definitely did not deter customers from making sure they (eventually) found the very best piece from the stack on sale. To my untrained eye, it appears that skin is definitely a good thing when choosing a prime piece of salt cod.
With the Mercado being big, there is enough space for a separate fresh-fish section. By the time we got there (around noon), most of the stands in this area had closed shop for the day, but there were still a few prawns and small fish on sale. We also enjoyed seeing the displays of sardines in the main market hall – arranged in wheels and looking a bit like fishy sunflowers.
The Mercado closes at around 2pm. There are signs around it advising that it is about to be "restored" – hopefully the current vibrancy will be retained. We also visited Valencia’s other large market – the Mercado Colon. This market has been recently restored. The brickwork and structure are beautiful, but it felt more like a mall than a market to us. We definitely preferred our visit to the Mercado Central.