What Can $25 Buy in Europe’s Largest Food Market? (Valencia, Spain)

What Can $25 Buy in Europe’s Largest Food Market? (Valencia, Spain)

We have $25 to spend and we are in front of the largest food market in all of Europe. They have every type of food you can imagine and we’re going to see exactly how much food we can get for our budget. But there’s a catch. This market closes in exactly 1 hour. So, we are in a race against the clock. 25 bucks. 1 hour. See what we get. $25 right now roughly equates to €22. Got a bit of a challenge. Time’s going by fast, so we got to go now. What do you think we should go for? I don’t know. If we’re on a time crunch, we should just grab something good. We see time crunch. This place has dried fruits, nuts. We’re only a few steps into the market and we’ve already come across our first place. So, for under €4, you get a glass of wine or beer and then your choice of tapa or a cup of olive. Instead of wine or beer, we actually went with his suggestion, which was a red vermouth. You see this everywhere in Spain and this was one of his personal favorites. He clearly specialized in olives, so we just had him pick us a variety of his favorites. I can’t say that I’ve ever had vermouth before, but the best way to describe it is like an aromatic wine and it’s really good. And then we just got off a train. We haven’t eaten anything. We’re going to save all of this to review later, but we needed a little fuel to get us going for this challenge. Oh yeah, that’s good. So juicy. And only four bucks. Not bad. What’s €4US 22? What do we have? €18 left. Ideally, I would have loved the time to sip on this vermouth while walking around the market, but my hands were currently full of camera equipment, so it had to go. Okay, that’s good. But going to kill this right now. So far, nothing’s really packaged to go, so holding everything that we buy might be a little bit of an issue. This is also a very crowded market and walking around with a glass of red wine just seemed like a problem waiting to happen. There’s literally so much to pick from. We’re going to do a quick loop and come up with a game plan of what’s next. I don’t really know where Ashley went. She’s lost. We have 40 minutes left. At this point, I’m starting to worry that the clock might get to us before we’re able to spend all of our money. But then when I thought all was lost, I finally found Ashley and I’m getting one of the things that are on our list for this trip, which is horada because I guess it’s different than the Mexican horada. It’s kind of blowing my mind that everything here seems so cheap. We spent less than €2 at this stall. This was also a stark reminder that the clock is steadily ticking, so we need to kick this into high gear. Right when we needed it the most, it’s when we stumbled across our next stall. fatty aged hemone ham that we have not had yet in Spain. It didn’t matter how long the line was. We could not say no to this staple of Spanish cuisine. Plus, their bokeadillos were only €250 in its aged thinly sliced ham on a French baguette. This is something I have to try while I’m here. Sandwich acquired, but it ate up precious time. Got a boado. It’s a ham sandwich. Looking fat. And we’ve got a pastry. We got orchatada. We still got some olives. We lost a pastry. It’s mine. It’s fine. I’m sweating so profusely right now. It’s stressful. So hot, but I’m going to take a bite. All right, let’s keep moving. I never really have high expectations when going to a market like this because they tend to be really touristy, but this is not like anything I expected in the best way possible. I do wish that we were here early enough to catch it really in action because they have a whole fresh fish and meat section all the way to places like this that have some of the most incredible desserts. This would give New York or Paris a run for its money. But this was also going to take up a large chunk of our budget and it had the longest line of any stall so far. So, unfortunately for now, we have to keep moving because we’re ticking down to about the last 30 minutes and we still have yet to spend €10. This is not looking very promising. We just got to pull the trigger on something. We got to find Ooh, how about paella? Ash, we haven’t had paella yet. It actually looks pretty good. We’re in Valencia. Valencia is the capital of paella. I don’t know if that’s a real thing, but we haven’t had any yet. So, there’s chicken, uh, seafood. I vote we wait for a restaurant to get seafood paella. Glad we got our sandwiches where we did cuz they were€1 cheaper. The best thing about doing these videos is a reason to talk to people and the man at the paella stand that was helping us out thought it was such a cool idea and he wanted us to try out another local specialty which is awa de Valencia. So he gave us some free shots. It’s fresh squeeze orange juice, vodka, gin, and cava. And he said it should be some inspiration to keep going around the market. It was just so awesome. That was our very first aua de Valencia for free. We got a paella. We got beer for 650. Can I have a sip of this? Ooh, that’s good. Interesting. Yeah, very nice. Kind of floral. After some serious deliberation and feeling pretty good about our choices so far and the time we had left, we decided to head back to the pastry shop. Now, we didn’t want to spend a lot, so I got two items, one sweet and one savory, and they were the two cheaper items that I could find. As tempting as it was to just blow the rest of our budget on some of these amazing looking croissants or this calculator-shaped cookie for some reason, we decided to rain it in and roll the dice in hopes that we could find some other good stalls that were still open. I don’t know how exactly, but we made it out of there only spending €4. Hola. Can we have one reserva cone, please? Now, you might be thinking to yourself, “Didn’t you guys already get hamone?” And yes, we did. And we’re getting more because I think for research purposes, it’s important to really try as many different aged meats as possible. Plus, this one’s in a cute little cone shape. We made it. We have €1 left in our pocket, and we finished just in the nick of time. But on our way out, we happen to see this place. It puts us a little over the budget, but no one’s really counting. And there’s always room for potato chips. I actually think we did pretty good. I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty impressed with how that went. We’re going to head back to the hotel and break into this and see what we got. It was too hot to eat in there. There’s a slight hiccup. The room wasn’t even ready yet. So, all this stuff has been sitting here for quite a while. I can’t see you through the balloons. Hi. Hi. We’ll get rid of those balloons for now. Um, happy birthday, me. Happy birthday. So, yes, everything’s been sitting here for an hour, hour and a half, 2 hours, probably. Let’s say 2 hours. I’m don’t have the highest hopes. We started snacking already. I think some of the stuff we already ate. So, just to recap, we had what’s not shown is a vermouth and a horada. I think everything else is here. A pretty good haul for $25. I’m going to start with this Cervesa pale logger. Nice warm nice warm beer. I mean, there’s some things I think are going to be okay. Some things will be okay. One of the first things we’ll go and order. Okay, we had some olives. We had some already. First of all, that guy was really cool. He said some of these olives were only exclusive to him and like two other places. It’s these green ones. These bright green ones. I don’t remember exactly where they’re from or like who specifically they were from, but they’re delicious. Oh, that’s good. That is really good. They’re like super savory. M I remember the spicy ones were good. They weren’t very spicy. You would have liked them. I ate one. You have one. They weren’t too spicy. I was surprised. These are good. It’s like a herbs provenance. And it’s so floral. Yeah, these are amazing. There’s whole cup of olives or you could have got a tapa like a pincho for $3.95 and a vermouth or a wine or a beer. Then next up, we got So, we got a beer. It was Was it It was beer and paella, right? Yes. Beer and paella together. Let’s get into this. Twice reheated paella. Really not excited. This is This is chicken and rabbit. Yes, it’s the traditional style. It does look good. I know you don’t like peppers, so I’ll eat the peppers off the top. Peppers. They already I’ve legit never had paella, so I don’t have high expectations cuz I know it’s like a market paella, but it’s pretty good. It’s not what I expected. What did you It’s not like super saffrony. It’s more like um kind of like a deep flavor. Like deep and rich. It is really good. You can tell it’s like I’m sure it’s supposed to be a little bit more moist now, but it’s been heated up twice. Are you going to try it? I’m going to have a bite. I like this big bean. Fava bean or whatever it is. That’s pretty good for six. I think it was 650. Oh, it’s better than I expected. It’s really good. See? Okay. It’s better than expected. I don’t like rice for this and a beer. And he gave us a free uh shot of the Valencia. Aua de Valencia. dog would be honest with you. I can’t tell if this is chicken or rabbit. I should be able to tell, but I think this is chicken. Maybe chicken is rabbit. I don’t You know what I’m saying? I’m pleasantly surprised. What’s next? Let’s mix up savory and sweet. This is a So, we got the horada, which is like a It’s not rice like in Mexico. It’s like a nut nut milk. Uh like almond milk, but different. I don’t know. Yeah, I don’t know exactly what it is. I’d have to look it up. I’ll put it right here. But and then it came comes with this fart. I think that’s how you say it. I have no idea. Farton and nutmilk. It’s kind of like a very sweet bread stick. Yes, it’s a sweet bread stick. Last time I had sugar in my mouth afterwards. And dip it in the horada. That’s nice. Like an olive garden bread stick with powdered sugar and no garlic. Well, yeah. No garlic and stuff. All right. That was only050 for being a super touristy place. We would pay more in the US for all this. Oh, yeah. All right. This is what you’ve been looking for this whole time. So, go for it. I’m going to keep eating. Okay. I’m frozen dry bread. I’m still chewing it. It’s dry bread with no drink. Okay. I was most excited for this ham cone. So, I think I’m going to try that next. What do you think? There’s nothing I don’t like about ham cone. Go for it. This was reserva. I don’t know the difference between reserva. I saw negro. I saw uh cl basic. I don’t know the difference between all these. I think I heard somebody say something at one point in time that one was best and one was second best, but I don’t remember which order. Do you know? Tell us in the comments. One’s Blackfoot. I assume that’s the negro. That would make sense. That’s good. This was 200 two €250. Oh. Oh, that’s tasty. Mhm. You got some fat in there? Yeah. I just got a big piece of fat. This might be my favorite thing so far. That is mine. Also, the best warm. Look at this. Can you see that? It’s like glistening fat. Oh, it looks so good. Yep. You’re in Spain. You got to get some ham. This is one of the best deals, too, for ham. You scared me. You took You took all this out. I thought the cone was empty. No, I just ate it. We got one of these. Was this at the confectionary place or they were selling nuts and stuff? Yeah. So, a lot of them have nuts and dried fruits and things that you can put like trail mixy things together of all that sort. And then I caught this sign on the corner that said $150. $150 for homemade chips. And you know we like potato chips. They’re very Lays reminiscent. Classic Lays. Yeah. Good salt. Good crunch. You can tell it’s a real potato. Yeah. That’s nice. Check that out. It is real potato. Just a good Yeah. Goodly. Just a good potato chip. I’m trying to get out of your thing. So, a sound bite, honey. This has been fantastic so far for not even an hour to kill and 25 bucks. Let’s keep on the ham train. We got this bokado, which I’ve wanted to try. A lot of people have this for breakfast. It’s so silly to me. It’s literally just bread with ham. Yeah, but it’s one piece of ham. It’s a nice crispy baguette. And then it there’s this is just the I don’t know. This is just the basico or the regular I don’t remember what he called it. Regular hamone on a baguette. Nice French baguette. And it’s just this was also €250. So same price as a cone but you get the whole bread to fill you up. Ah I don’t like bread. You’re in Europe. You got to get a baguette. Have a bite. I’m telling you, so much bread. You want me that? You take that bite. Bite it. It’s all red. It’s fine. The bread’s kind of dry. Get the cone. I would probably prefer the cone. But if you’re really hungry, you just want some carbs. Just the meat by itself. A little bit more smoky than that one. I’m glad we didn’t get a seafood paella and then have to sit there forever. And then have it be sitting out. I know. I almost made you get the squid ink one because that’s the other I wanted to get the I don’t remember what they call the pasta version of paella. If you remember, throw it in the comments. It’s not fuada. It’s like fed fido. I do want to try it while we’re fabio. Fabio. Fabio. The long the long blond Fabio. All right. Next up, paella. Classic empanada. I look awkward because I’m waiting because you won’t let me eat the chip because I’ll make too much noise. Eat the chip. I don’t remember what was in it, but it’s red on the inside. M. Oh, that’s all you, baby. That’s so much peppers. Red on the inside. That’s very pepper forward. Look at that. That’s nice. I will try this part on the corner so that I don’t have to worry about too much of the sauce. I remember what this is now. Roasted red pepper and tuna. This was the cheapest one. That’s why you got that one. I got it cuz it was the cheapest one. But it’s pretty tasty. I was going to say I’m not going to let you order anymore. The dough is really flaky. It’s a nice soft buttery dough. That’s the best bread bite I’ve had, I think, so far. Mhm. That’s nice. It’s like a good pie crust. And then on the inside, um what do you call the like peppery uh what is it called? Soprito. He remembered. With tuna. I assume some kind of canned tuna, but it’s a higher quality canned tuna because the tuna fish flavor is very mild. I like that a lot. I was a little worried when I saw that it was tuna. Last but not least, we got a little mini croissant, which it almost looks like a lobster tail type of like very thin, flaky. You know what I’m talking about? Like a Boston like from the North End lobster tail. You probably have never had one. I might have. I know. I forget the Italian name. I vaguely know what you’re talking about. See, it’s like this flaky kind of wavy crust. It’s not like a traditional croissant. It’s this little extra flaky layer thing that I’m right. Am I crazy? I’m going to eat the tail. Go for it. It’s just a little mini croissant covered in white chocolate. But this was white chocolate 80 cents. Oh, it’s stuffed with white chocolate, too. Okay, that’s weird. Dang, that’s good. Mhm. Did you get any of this? The filling? I don’t know. Maybe a little. Oh my god, that’s fantastic. No, you ate the whole thing. Might have had like Bavarian cream in it. It’s so good. It was like a It was like a creamy It wasn’t just white chocolate in the center. It was like a cream. I think it’s fair to say that for $25, you can eat like a king at the Marcato Central. It was one of the best markets I’ve been to. I wish we had more time there. There was a fresh fish market. It opens at 6:00 a.m. We just happened to get there right before they closed. As far as touristy markets across the world go, this has been one of my top ones. I can’t think of a better one of my favorites. No, maybe like the Cusco uh farmers market. Okay, the Cusco market in the central that was just so unique. There were literally like But this is great. 400 potatoes I’ve never seen. Officially not a tourist trap. It just happens to be around tourist, but it’s definitely not a tourist market. I agree with that. Go check it out. Check it out. It is worth it. Don’t forget, they close at 3:00. They’re open 6:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. I still haven’t figured out how time works here in Spain and when people eat. We literally raced from the train station, dropped our bags at the hotel, and ran to the market to do this video. And I’m so glad we did cuz we would have missed out on a lot of good stuff. Don’t forget to like and subscribe if you found this helpful. We will catch you on the next one.

Welcome to our latest travel challenge! We’re in Valencia, Spain, and heading to the largest and busiest fresh food market in Europe: the incredible Mercado Central de Valencia (Central Mercat in Valencian). The twist? We only have $25 (about €23) and a strict time limit of 60 minutes before the market shuts down for the day! Can we get a massive haul of delicious Valencian food and Spanish produce before the clock runs out?

The Central Market of Valencia is a stunning, modernist food hub known for its incredible variety of fresh seafood, exotic fruit stands, high-quality Iberico ham, and traditional Valencian tapas. It is officially the largest fresh food market in Europe. Watch as we navigate the bustling aisles of this iconic Valencia Central Market to find the best deals and the most interesting items for just $25. This is the ultimate budget food tour and a race against the clock! We’ll show you exactly what $25 can buy at this historic Mercado Central.

If you love travel vlogs, food challenges, and seeing the best of Valencia on a budget, make sure to SUBSCRIBE so you don’t miss our next adventure! What’s the biggest food haul you’ve ever gotten for $25? Let us know your strategy in the comments!
#FoodChallenge #BudgetTravel #spanishfood #valencia #spaintravel

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00:00 Introduction
00:54 stop 1: olives
02:33 horchata
04:40 paella
05:17 sweets
07:10 taste test
16:38 recap