Eating Well in Asturias: Markets, Supermarkets, and the Seasonal Table
Where to shop, what to buy, and how to eat like someone who actually lives here.
Hello,
One of the first things you notice when you arrive in Asturias, once the paperwork settles and you begin to find your rhythm, is that the food here is quietly extraordinary.
Not in a showy way. Not in the way of Michelin stars and destination restaurants, though those exist too. But in the everyday way. The way a market stallholder hands you a bunch of asparagus and tells you exactly how to cook it. The way a supermarket feels different when everything on the shelves was grown within an hour of where you are standing.
Eating well in Asturias is not difficult. But it does require knowing where to go, and why it matters.
El Fontán: where Oviedo does its real shopping
If you have not yet been to El Fontán, go this weekend. Go on a Saturday morning, when it is at its most alive.
The market sits in the heart of the old city, in a building that carries centuries of daily life in its stone and ironwork. It is alive with sounds, aromas, and the easy talk of its kind people. Vendors who know their regulars, who will tell you the provenance of everything they sell, and who seem genuinely pleased that you are there.
Everything at El Fontán is local. The cheeses are Asturian. The vegetables arrived that morning. The fish came from the Cantabrian coast. You will not find anything here that has travelled further than it needs to.
Go without a list. Walk the whole market once before you buy anything. Then go back to the stalls that caught your attention. That is how it is meant to be done.
What May looks like at the market
Right now, in May, the stalls are full of the first serious greens of the year. And above everything else: asparagus.
Asturian asparagus in spring is something worth making a small ceremony of. We have been cooking it simply at home, a few minutes on the griddle, a la plancha, with nothing more than a little good olive oil and a pinch of salt. It needs nothing else. The flavour is clean and grassy and completely of this place.
This is what eating seasonally actually means. Not a philosophy. Just asparagus, a hot griddle, and the particular satisfaction of eating something that was growing in Asturian soil a day ago.
The supermarkets worth knowing, and why they matter
Not everything can come from the market. For the weekly shop, here is what we actually use, and why we recommend these over the more obvious options.
Alimerka is Asturian. Founded here, rooted here, and still behaving like a company that knows its neighbours. The produce is largely local, the quality is consistently good, and the prices are honest. But what we want to tell you about Alimerka goes beyond the shelves.
Alimerka supports the oncology departments at HUCA and Monte Naranco Hospital, and the oncology children’s ward. They have created small, quiet rooms on those wards, with sofas, a fridge stocked with juices and yoghurt, a tea and coffee point, for the families of patients who need somewhere to rest. Somewhere to simply be, in the middle of the hardest thing.
We have used one of those rooms. We know what it means to find that kind of thoughtfulness in a moment of exhaustion and grief.
When a company does something like that, quietly, without making it a marketing campaign, it tells you something about its values. Shop there knowing that.
Más y Más is also Asturian, and was recently recognised as one of Spain’s top companies for worker satisfaction. That is not a small thing. A business that treats its people well tends to take care of everything else too. The produce is local, the atmosphere is calm, and it has the particular warmth of a shop that has not forgotten what it is for.
El Corte Inglés food hall is where we go for the things that don’t come from Asturias. Good olive oils from other regions, international ingredients, the occasional luxury. It is beautifully stocked and worth knowing for those moments when you want something specific that the local shops don’t carry.
A note on eating like someone who lives here
The shift from shopping out of habit to shopping with attention is one of the small pleasures of building a new life somewhere. You are not on autopilot. You are choosing, noticing, learning.
Buy what is in season. Ask the stallholder what arrived this morning. Let the market tell you what you are having for dinner rather than the other way around.
This is not a lifestyle aspiration. It is simply how people here have always eaten. And once you fall into the rhythm of it, you will not want to go back.
Before we go, we would love to hear from you.
What has surprised you most about food and eating in Asturias, and is there a market, a shop, or a dish you think we should know about?
Wishing you a lovely day,
Amy, Jorge & Celeste
P.S. If you are still in the planning stages of your move and wondering what daily life here actually looks and feels like, that is exactly what our Soft Landing support is for. A free discovery call is the best place to start.
