Shopping for gifts to bring home can be one of travel’s greatest pleasures, or a real challenge. In Spain, it’s made easy by the abundant local foods that travel well.
My family looks forward to my trips to Spain, not because they want to get rid of me, but because they know that I will bring back goodies. In fact, they have begun to provide me with handy lists.
As I head for Madrid and Tenerife next week, I find my mailbox filled with cryptic little messages: “I’m out of sweet paprika” and “I loved those almond-stuffed olives” and “If you find any more candied figs…” They’re not all about food. One reminded me that she was running low on Magno soap.
All easy requests to fill at one stop: the grocery store. The easiest stop for nearly everything is the Corte Ingles department store found in any city. I head straight down the escalator to the grocery store that’s always on the lower level. There I find boxes of Spanish paprika in both hot (picante) and sweet (dulce), far tastier than the bland stuff at home, and in exotic red tin boxes.
Almond-stuffed olives are packed in little tin cans, indestructible in luggage. The same bright-colored candied whole fruits that confectioners sell at twice the price are packaged less elegantly, but travel better sealed in plastic. Green whole figs are almost transparent, and bright orange apricots seldom make it to the person I buy them for. Delectable Spanish almonds are inexpensive here, and unobtainable at home.
The soap aisle finishes my expedition, with bars of Magno – dark-colored soap that is almost unknown outside of Spain – and fragrant Heno de Pravia in its bright yellow wrapper. I don't tell anyone that I pack this amid my dirty laundry to keep my luggage smelling fresh!
The best part is that my whole basket full costs only a few Euros, especially welcome now that the American dollar is worth so little.
