Some snippets of dark, mellow ham from the Brindisa stall will go nicely with a glass of pale, salty sherry before I ladle out bowls of smokily seasoned bean stew the colour of rust. This is not just any old ham, but some sweet and nutty Iberico from acorn-fed pigs that has been cured in the cool winter air around Salamanca.
It is undeniably expensive, but I only need a little - and who cares when an ingredient is as good as this? Except that I am not actually standing in a queue at all: being a 21st-century shopper, I am in a 'virtual' queue, which basically means that you put in your order and then go away and do the rest of your shopping. After your estimated waiting time - 35 minutes in my case - a package of expertly cut, paper-thin ham will be ready and waiting for you.
This is more than enough time to get myself into serious trouble with a chocolate brownie the size of a family bible, but it also allows me to stock up on deeply smoked red paprika, dried chickpeas, chorizo for my stew and bags of mild green peppers for frying, with very little oil and rather a lot of sea salt.
I am something of a latecomer to the ochre-red notes of paprika and the pearly sausages it so brilliantly colours.
Never overly fond of the dragon's breath Toulouse-type, I have previously stuck to the spiciest butcher's sausages I can find, but these are rarely spicy enough to give a winter casserole the depth it needs to be genuinely warming.
