The Hand that Feeds: A blogular tribute to the company that single-handedly nourishes me

I live in a student apartment. Three other girls, two from Córdoba province and one from Jerez de la Frontera, and myself split our lovely abode. Being from a more developed "food culture," Spanish students are privileged when it comes to their nourishment. Their diet of fresh fruits and vegetables, bread, cured meats, etc. are supplemented with individually frozen portions of happiness. Spanish mothers send their offspring back to the city with tons of tupperwares of home-cooked meals. These dishes include stews, lentils, meat with potatoes, migas, seasoned fillets of chicken, even snails. Since most people in Spain come home from work or school around 2 for lunch, these tupperwares are taken out in the morning and left to thaw and then heated up upon arrival home. How's that for a TV dinner?

A prime specimen in our chest freezer, overflow from the regular freezer.

One very smart mommy puts her food in recycled milk containers!

My mother, and father for that fact, happens to be one of the best cooks in the world. (Whose isn't?) But alas, Kristen is too far away to send me little home cooked meals. Therefore, I rely on the closest substitute I can:

Photo of Mercadona plant outside of Sevilla.

I am lucky enough to be living by a Mercadona. Whilst Jackie and Eric were listing of the benefits and detriments of their new apartments in Madrid and Sevilla, respectively, they both had pretty damn near the top of their list the fact that they had to shop at Dia, the poor man's Mercadona.

Mercadona's house brand is Hacendado. I buy pretty much every single product that Hacendado fabricates.

Hacendado is Spanish for "Christ-how-do-they-have-all-the-products-that-I-want-and-why-does-it-cost-so-much-less-than-all-the-real-brands-like-for-christ's-sake-la-lechera-yogurt-is-so-damn-expensive-who-the-hell-would-buy-that-with-the-Merca-brand-right-here."

Roughly translated, of course.

All Hacendado.

Another tidbit about the ins and outs of Mercadona, from a linguistic standpoint. Learning Spanish in Andalucía makes a strong impression on the way one pronounces their words, to say the least. Listening to this dialect day in and day out for about a year and a half has caused me to permanently cut all d's out of the 'ado' endings of words, and for that matter the whole last syllable of a lot of words. It's hot out, I don't feel like pronouncing.

Therefore, when I grab my enourmous reusable plastic shopping bags, I inform my roommates and whoever else happens to be in the vicinity, "Bueno, me voy a la Merca. Alguien necesita algo?"  which means, "I'm going to the distribution center of happiness and nourishment. In order to be helpful those around me, I am offering to buy you any product that you might need from the great provider, granted it is not bulky. And no valuepacks of milk. You haul that shit back on your own."

Again, roughly translated.

Laura and Rocio never fail to snicker.

"Haha mira la guiri. Ha dicho ´la merca´ en vez de Mercadona. Qué graciosa!" roughly translated as "You've been here too long to not know which words are shortened and which words aren't, but not quite long enough to create your own slang words in Spanish. You are a constant source of joy and amusement, and can you get me a pack of gum from the store, the minty kind, here's a euro."

Anywho, this whole post arose because I am hungry yet I'm on a Merca detox. As I am going on vacation on Thursday with Joseca to the north of Spain (can't wait!!), I refuse to go grocery shopping until I get back. As I have an overload of dried legumes, pasta, non-perishables, etc., I last week declared that I would not go to the Merca until I eat the food I already had. Today I decided this does not include fruit and vegetables, so I went to get a bit of produce. But other than that my diet has consisted of way to many dried things that I boil and then add other things to make them taste better.

I will return to Málaga next Wednesday with tons of photos from Northland adventures. I'll post after I raid the Merca, clearly.