Shopping around

Expand Your Spanish

tance. And their car insurance includes helpful services such as Legal Assistance that can provide help when applying for or renewing your driving li -

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Lower The Price Of Your Insurance

Change to Línea Directa and they will lower the price of your insurance. Línea Directa has been providing comprehensive car, motorbike and home insurance to British expatriates and residents in Spain for over 25 years. With over three million customers nationwide, Línea Directa makes sure you get the best possible price for the kind of insurance you really need.

ENGLISH ­ SPEAKERS living in Spain can shop for food in supermarkets without uttering a word of Spanish.

Even so, you might want to try your luck at the fish or meat counter while taking care to avoid both at the weekend or the day before a national holiday. That’s when you run the risk of being stuck behind someone making a mega purchase that involves cutting, chopping, filleting, deboning, descaling and overall tweaking.

It’s also one way of getting exactly what you want and although you can resort to sign language or mime, here are some phrases which will help you get it. Usually you can get away without verbs, too, if you add ‘por favor’.

Thin/thick slices please….. lonchas finas/gruesas, por favor

Thin/thick fillets…..filetes finos/gruesos, por favor…..

Cut up/chopped…..en trozos, por favor

The good thing about meat counters is that they will mince the meat of your choice for you, so you know what you’re eating:

I would like a quarter/half/one kilo of minced pork/beef….. quiero que me pique un cuarto /medio /un kilo de cerdo/ternera

I’ve omitted lamb ­ cordero which involves buying and boning a leg or shoulder before mincing, although I’ve seen it done. Alternatively, if there’s a halal butcher near you, you’ll get it there.

If you don’t see what you want:

Do you have fillet steak/stewing steak/lamb chops/pork chops/chicken breast/rabbit/panceta?…..¿hay solomillo/carne para guisar/chuletas de cordero/chuletas de cerdo/pechuga de pollo/conejo/pork belly?

Don’t miss out on the fish counter, where they will do everything to a fish bar cook it for you:

Gut it …..límpielo/la, por favor

Without the head….. sin cabeza, por favor…..

Bone it ….. sin la raspa, por favor…..

Butterfly it (use this for fillet steak, too)…..me lo abre, por favor

In fillets…..En filetes, por favor

In (round) slices…..en rodajas, por favor

And, to change the subject as usual, don’t forget that Jubilación isn’t Cliff Richard’s kind of jubilation but retirement, although come to think of it that’s something to be jubilant about too.