Madrid's Mercado San Miguel

After the incident with the suckling pig we walked around and to the nearby Mercado San Miguel. It is Madrid's oldest market but was recently renovated and converted into a tapas shopping mall extravaganza. It is large and interesting because, instead of 20-30 different tapas joints, all serving pretty much the same things, you have 20-30 specialized tapas joints. Seafood here, jamon there, olives there, caviar here. (Caviar?!) See below. In any case, we resolved to come back for another dinner-on-a-stick after our visit to the Thyssen. And we did.

Us, there

Has the whole world gone mojito?!

Welcome to the seafood department!

Olives tapas, with jamon, salmon, squid, cheese...

We think this might have been Japanese tapas

Potato chip tapas

Turkish tapas, the pistachio particularly tempting

So from this bin, I predict that tapas/pinxtos soon will be known simply as "shots"--
food shots--more alluring to the younger American tourist

Caviar shots

Mozzarella shots

From the Mozzarella bar

What youngsters do while parents take shots

Sangria on tap

Wine guy

After the olives shot, I had this seafood shot

There is exactly one market type store in the market; here, a beautiful pyramide
under construction; cherry shots?

Black rice paella; I do not understand why (some) people think paella is such a
big deal

Yogurt shots; read the label

Pizza tapas; I mean, shot

Avid customer

Coffee shots

We thought we might end it all with a shot each of Ginja, the incredibly wonderful
Portuguese cherry liqueur; but this was a watered-down abomination, not even
served in a chocolate cup

So we repaired to the Amorino's across the street; a great ending to a great day