Exploring São Paulo’s Municipal Market

MERCADO MUNICIPAL DE SÃO PAULO

MERCADO MUNICIPAL DE SÃO PAULO

Mercado Municipal de São Paulo

As soon as I knew I was visiting São Paulo, I was excited at the prospect of the local markets. I imagined all sorts of weird and wonderful fruits and vegetables, displayed on hap-hazzard stalls on the side of the road. What I hadn’t anticipated was the grandiose Central Municipal market, known by the locals as “Mercadão”, meaning “big market”. A good description, but it hardly does this location justice. It’s a Neo-classical/Neo-baroque building with Gothic touches, some of which was imported from Germany.

The opening of this market was delayed because of the Constitutionalist Revolution of 1932, and for a period of time the building became a military headquarters, and a warehouse for arms and explosives. But in January of 1933, this building opened for its original purpose.

Exterior of the Mercado Market in Sao Paulo Brazil

This impressive market is a cavernous space illuminated by 55 topical stained glass windows. The main floor is a labyrinth of over 280 well laid out stalls, selling fruits and vegetables, spices, meat, poultry and seafood.

There’s a good selection of snack stalls to eat on the ground floor, but the main restaurant area is on the mezzanine level. This is where you get a birds eye view of the action below, and a selection of restaurants offering traditional Brazilian dishes, the most famous of which is the Pastel de Bacalhau (salted-cod pastry).

What to Eat

As soon as anyone I interacted with knew I was visiting the market, they encouraged me to visit the Hocca Bar, a São Paulo tradition, which is original creator of the city’s famous codfish pastry (pastel de bacalhauan iconic dish that’s part of São Paulo’s cultural heritage.

In 1952 Portuguese immigrants Horácio Gabriel and wife Maria de Deus Ferreira opened their bar at Mercado Municipal and started making a pastry packed with shredded codfish, according to an old family recipe.

Mercado Market Sao Paulo Brazil Salted Cod

Each day, literally thousands of visitors head to the market to chow down on one. This isn’t the only place in town to get a pastel — they’re sold at restaurants and street vendors all over town, but the Hocca is it’s home.

Salted Fish

The main ingredient in pastel de bacalhau is salted cod, and it’s for sale in the seafood aisle of the market.

Salted Cod for Sale at the Mercado Market Sao Paulo Brazil
Salted cod
Salted Cod for Sale at the Mercado Market Sao Paulo Brazil
Packaged and loose Salted cod
Salted Cod for Sale at the Mercado Market Sao Paulo Brazil
Salted cod – nice to look at .. please don’t make me eat it!
Salted Cod for Sale at the Mercado Market Sao Paulo Brazil
wherever you look – salted cod

I found this quote on Rick Steves Blog about salted cod in Portugal:

While fresh seafood is abundant, the Portuguese favor cod — salted cod, to be specific. Perhaps cod is in their collective DNA from the age when preserved-in-salt cod was the life-sustaining protein sailors filled the bilges of their ships with five centuries ago …. the Portuguese continue to import dried and salted cod from Norway, stack it like wood, and — when it’s time to eat it — soak it and cook it. Frankly, it’s just the strangest thing: a nation’s primary staple imported from far-away Norway.

Video View of  Mercadão

 

As tempting as a Pastel de Bacalhau sounded, I wasn’t in the mood for a fried cod pasty … and ended up at a little seafood stall on the ground floor, where I had some kind of baked crab and potato in a half shell.

I’m not sure what it was called, because the menu was in Portuguese and nobody on the stall could speak English. But I saw one of the other customers eating one, and I pointed at it to order. Sometimes that’s the best way to explore the menu.

Opening Times

Getting There

  • Closest Metrô: São Bento.
  • Area: Centro
  • Address:  Rua da Cantareira 306, Sé Centro, São Paulo01024–000Map It
  • Parking Available
Get your fill of salted cod and stained glass windows at the Municipal market in #SaoPaulo #Brazil. Click To Tweet

Author: Roving Jay

Jay is a project manager who swapped corporate life for a nomadic existence as a travel writer. She works with authors and entrepreneurs to help them achieve their self-publishing goals and reach their target audience through content marketing. Jay has published a series of travel guides, a travel memoir, and nonfiction books about travel writing. She housesits and volunteers around the globe with her husband, a Hollywood set painter, and she’s never more that 10 paces away from a wi-fi connection.

10 thoughts on “Exploring São Paulo’s Municipal Market

  1. Hi,
    Thank you for sharing such a great post. The like for dry salted fish by the Brazilians is actually a tradition acquired from the Portuguese. The famous pastel de bacalhau is a national dish in Portugal. I enjoyed the reading and once again thank you.

  2. What beautiful stained glass at San Paulo’s Municipal Market! I love exploring the local markets everywhere I travel. Nothing gives a better view of local life when you first arrive than a mercado visit 🙂

  3. Don’t think I would go for a fried cod pastry either but I have tried salted cod in curries. They were okay. I do like seafood though and shellfish. The baked crab with potatoes sounds delightful. What I find fascinating and I’m sure I will stand admiring for a good long minutes are the 55 stained glass windows! Love your photos on them .

  4. Damn, this is a place I missed out on when visiting Sao Paulo. I spent three days there and still it wasn’t enough. Especially since I’m a big art aficionado and Sao Paulo was my Cockaigne.

  5. Such a beautiful market. I love your photos. Those stain glass windows look incredible and local markets are such a great way to get exposed to the local culture and community scene.

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