Good buys in Spanish supermarkets and pharmacies

[TheAngryLlama]

So I am v well versed in what to snaffle in french stores after many many holidays there. This year we are heading for Spain (Catalunya). What is the best supermarket and what is good to bring back, both food and beauty product wise? What’s good in pharmacies?

Find a Dia supermarket. The sliced chorizo packets are thin enough to bring back, ?if this is allowed! Little tins of squid and seafood if you like it.

I do! I love seafood. Little tins of squid are right up my street . Thank you.

Ah you must stock up then! The tins of anchovy-stuffed olives are always a winner too. Ooh and controversially a paella spice mix, it will come in a little box. You'd be surprised how often these are used in Spain, hilariously they come with a warning regarding E numbers and children's activitiy levels.

Retirides cream (Retin A).

Yes to paella spice mix, they also do really good chicken cooking bag spices things (it’s a bag you put a whole chicken in & then roast it - they sell them here but Spanish ones are better)

Agreed, the Spanish chicken spice mix things are amazing. When I lived there as a student I used to sprinkle that mix on everything, it lasted for ages!

Mercadona supermarkets carry a really good thick body moisturiser called Oliva it's in a white tub with a green lid. Smells divine and is honestly the best one I've found. It's also cheap as chips at around €2.
I also stick up on omeprazole in the chemists, it's a really good antacid that's only available on prescription here (ireland) and is available over the counter in Spain and a tenth of the price.

I take omeprazole daily so that is good to know.
Loving the idea of the chicken bags. Yes olives are a must. Also gin, I like Spanish gin,

Mercadona also do excellent Aloe Vera handcream that makes my hands SO soft. Also cheap

My stepmother is in love with La Toja shower gel and stocks up on that, it does have a nice smell.

Alburquina olives are the mutt's nuts. Olive oil from Siurana - good lord I could just drink it straight!

Lacasitos taste better than Smarties.

Lays 'campesino' flavoured crisps are devine.

Lidl here does dark chocolate with pistachio nuts. Amazing.

Hipercor, the foodhall section of the Spanish department store chain El Corte Inglés, has loads of great goodies.

if you've travelled by car or are self catering I can recommend jars of cooked chickpeas and butterbeans (judias or gigantes) , gorgeous dry sherries at half the price they are here, packets of iberico and bellota hams, lomo (cured loin) chorizo and other cured meat. Excellent wine selection.
Plus there are amazing varieties of cheeses, roasted peppers in vacuum packs, and all sorts of olives, dried fruits and nuts.
AFAICR there is an El Corte Inglés in Barcelona and good ones in Santander and Pamplona. (Not all the stores have a food hall).
I like Mercadona for its fresh fish section - amazing seafood.

There's an El Corte Ingles bang in the centre of Barcelona in Places Catalunya. Another on Diagonal (Places Fransesc Macia-L'illa way), and a Hipercor out on the Meridiana at Fabre I Puig metro (once bombed by ETA!)

They have Jacob's Cream Crackers and Cadbury's Chocolate Fingers in their 'hall of luxury', makes me laugh!

If you go to the restaurant on the top floor of the one in Placa Catalunya, there's a viewing gallery and you can see all over Barcelona : planes circling Montjuic, Tibidabo etc. For the price of a coffee

Placemarking.

You can get 600mg ibuprofen in the pharmacy which lasts 8 hours. The maximum allowed in the uk over the counter is 400mg, they also do paracetamol in 1000mg tablets which is a normal two pill dosage. Olive oil soap leaves your skin really nice and moisturised.

Saffron. It’s so much cheaper.

So... Drugs! Cheaper, more effective, more plentiful

Apparently you can also get really high strength ibuprofen in Spanish pharmacies. Like 600 mg vs 200 here.
And I recall a thread on here a couple of years ago about what to buy in pharmacies in Europe that you can't here -- but I can't find it. Sorry.

Sorry, cross post about the ibuprofen.
I kept a few posts from the thread I mentioned, and they mention being able to buy tramadol over the counter!
Also a pain killer called Enantyum .

There is a brilliant travel sickness chewing gum called chiclida which you can buy over the counter in Spain.

Wow thanks for all these.
Think I’ll have to make a trip to Hipercor

Turrón! Lovely almond stuff in a big bar. It's a traditional Christmas treat but you can usually find it in many supermarkets all year round. I love a little piece of the soft kind (turrón blando) with a coffee, it's delicious.

Agree with Teddybear45 about saffron. You should be able to find a matchbox size box for a couple of euros, amazing value. Great if you make a lot of paellas! Avoid the very cheap paella seasonings that are just orange food colouring and will give your rice a luminous orange glow! The Carmencita paella seasonings are nice though.

Another thing I like to buy are the bags of garlic and parsley breadcrumbs, very useful in the kitchen for adding flavour to meatballs or cooking chicken mini-fillets in breadcrumbs as the Spanish do.

I love the entire Babaria body care range, it's aloe vera scented and smells divine. Cheap as chips.

My mum swears by aspirina, its lemon flavoured aspirin. God knows why but it cures all ills, apparently.

Yes I love turron will defo be bringing that back.
Any advice re wine?

I've a feeling there are lots of things you can buy over the counter that are prescription only here. Steroid creams and lotions?

Wine!!

I love a good Rioja and a marqués de riscal is a good showy one, but the prettiest bottle I’ve ever seen is milflores! it’s tasty too.

Cataluña has a great liqueur, crema catalana liqueur. I bought some in Montserrat which was made by the monks themselves which was amazing! It’s betyer than baileys.

In the pharmacies I get retirides (retin A), betnovate (for eczema steroid cream, prescription only in uk) and strong paracetamol.

All the cured meats!