Cartagena Shopping

A delight for all shoppers, an oasis in the sun. Air conditioning!! Food, wine, beer, clothes, art, bowling, cinema,casino, B&Q type shops, sport shops, electrical, gardening and for me an exit.
It's like the Trafford center in Manchester. A Mall on the outskirts of the city.

What to buy: Lovely smoked hams.

What to pay: Too much

What to buy: What you should bring back from Spain if you drive home ?
• Sweet onions. to eat raw, sliced in tomato salads. The outer skin is pinkish, the flesh white. We bring back 15 kg of sweet onions for ourselves and for gifts.
• Mojama primera (atun) (tuna dry fillets), delicious appetizer. At fish markets, the full size fillets are too large to bring back. In supermarkets, they have smaller size, vacuum-packed, convenient for travel.
• hueva de maruca (dried fish eggs), delicious appetizer too.
• crespillos : small flat, dry cakes, salted and peppered as appetizers.
• ajos en aceite (jars of garlic pickled in olive oil) : surprisingly sweet, succulent.
• The numerous classical anis liquor to drink with water : El Maese de Chinchon or Vicente Bosch, one of the best.
• horchata de chufa : a vegetal milk sold in supermarket at the same counter than preserved milk, made from the tubers of Cyperus esculentus (earth almond) which grows in the Guadalquivir marshes, cultivated by the Egyptian 3000 years ago, brought to Spain by the Arabs in the 8th century. It is sweet and should be drunk iced.
• ham and other pork meat. At the end of your travel, why not bring back a whole ham ? Wrapped in absorbing kitchen paper, in towels and in a plastic bag, there is no problem to drive home, even if that lasts two days. You should try ! It is a perfect gift ! Jamon Serrano is very good, from pink porks (white legs). Jamon iberico is even better, from black porks (black legs). The best is Jamon iberico de belotta, from half wild porks fed with acorn, matured 2-3 years in the mountain. It is expensive but worth it. Don't miss. For other pork meat (chorizo), it is better to keep in an ice-box (as well as mojama and hueva de maruca), while the jamon don't need it

If you fly home, or travel by train or bus, you will have to travel lighter. Ham is excluded as well as onions ! Some countries have strong regulations that forbid to bring back any fresh food. Beware…