It’s bad enough missing the odd proper sausage sandwich and roast dinners from England, but being brought up in the Philippines until the age of 10 I still had the desire for a wide variety of Oriental foods. Large cities in the UK such as London, Manchester, Birmingham and Leeds have established China Towns and I’ve never had to go without all my favourite ’home comforts’, but I was not too sure whether there would be a Chinatown in Valencia Spain.
Even though I found a few online Asian stores in Spain and UK, I wasn’t prepared to pay up to £60.00 for delivery of my favourite Asian ingredients. There MUST be somewhere in Valencia that sells these things?!! So this week I made it my mission to look for Oriental Food Stores in and around Valencia.
About 2 minutes walk from Estación del Norte, you will find that you are already in the district of Valencia’s China Town. It is not as large as London’s China Town but here you will find all kind of restaurants many with English translated menu, shops and services. Once I stepped in one mini market, I was back ‘home’ again. The smell of authentic oriental ingredients such as lemon grass, galangal and ginger. I also grabbed a few ramen noodles for the boys, always a good comfort food.
Having caught the train to the city, I was pretty limited of what I could bring home. Ideally, I would have loved to have brought home a sack of jasmine rice, halo-halo ingredients, and other traditional spices and sauces. I’m still not used to driving in the centre, and I don’t have the courage yet to tackle it. I’m sure in time I will get to know my way around, but for now, catching a train from my town to Valencia is stress-free
