A Day At The Museum

One thing you may not know about me is that I'm not a big fan of museums and art galleries. They're fine in their own way, but I wont go out of my way to visit them and it is with some measure of satisfaction I am able to say that in my travels through Italy, France and Spain I have not spent a single Euro on entry fees/tours to any museum or art gallery. Sure, I did visit a few churches, but not any that had an up front charge.

Having said that, there is one museum which I not only visited, but to which I made repeat visits and happily handed over the ever diminishing notes from my wallet to be a part of what was going on inside.


Followers of this blog have probably very astutely translated the above sign to Museum of Ham, and if you haven't already guessed, I'm a big fan of pork products (I know, some of you may be shocked). So this was certainly not a place to just walk past and ignore. So I'm thinking maybe this is a museum which shows the history of Jamon and the production process that goes along with it. Not a bad idea, but taking a look through the front window reveals a more practical and exciting interpretation of the term "Museum".

Glimpses of hams of all types entice me to take a closer look, the aromas practically wafting me in like a cartoon mouse at the smell of a particularly delicious cheese. In this case, however, there was no large cartoon cat standing just behind the cheese ready to pounce.

Just hundreds and hundreds of legs of jamon. Everywhere I look, more porky goodness and I'm not the only one drawn to this hall of ham on the over 30C degree summer day, far from it. Space is at a premium, with a deli counter on the left selling all kinds of porcine produce and a bar on the left selling cold beer and food, it's easy to see why this place is always packed with people.


Fighting for my place at the bar, I order a cerveca (a glass of beer that costs 1 Euro). When you order a cerveca at Museo Del Jamon, if you don't order any food, you are given a plate with a snack from the selection sitting around the bar. This may include a couple of small empanadas (pasties), olives, small cuts of various hams, etc. I'm not sure if it was deliberate, but without my asking, the server gave me a different snack every time I ordered a beer.

It may not look like the most appetising plate of food in the world, but a few offcuts of ham and other meat products is a great accompaniment to a cold beer. So for lunch, I asked for more of the same.

Served with a generous hunk of bread, or the house tomato bread if you want to order it at an extra charge, this is a satisfying and delicious lunch filled with the smoky goodness of pork.

Other great value meals on offer are Bocadillo del Jamon (a bread roll with jamon as pictured above), paella or many other options you can see on the sign above the bar. There are several of these places scattered around Madrid and I would love to see them scattered around Melbourne some time soon.

Once again, my thanks to all of my readers who have stuck with this blog and for the fantastic feedback you have been giving, there are one or two posts left from this amazing journey (including what was possibly the best meal of my life) and after that, who knows what is next for VoraciousGrazer, stay tuned.