Buns & Bones, from the food market to you
Buns & Bones in Madrid is an institution for bun lovers, with three restaurants in the coolest barrios of the Spanish capital.
What is always interesting to know about this successful restaurants is the behind the scene, answering to the owner questions like:
- Where does the inspirations for the menu comes from?
- Where do you get the ingredients?
This second question in particular has always been my constant curiosity about how do restaurants manage thier daily shopping, because to me, getting the ingredients and do the grocery is the most difficult thing for a restaurant, respecting the seasonality of food and trying not to waste.
Buns & Bones not only answered to my question, but brought me on a grocery tour in Mercado Anton Martin which is actually one of Buns & Bones restaurants location.
I was able to hear from Wilmer López words (Buns & Bones founder and chef) the story of each market stall and what is his daily shopping for each plate of the menu.
Besides the classic butcher’s shop specialized in white meat or beef, we also saw very particular stalls, like the only Spanish seaweed shop in all the countries selling mediterranean seaweeds, or the greengrocer proving incredibly refined and rare fruits and vegetables.
The Buns & Bones menu changes with the seasons and the trends, it was the first restaurant in Madrid starting offering the poke, the ultimate foodie trend of the last months.
Poke is an Hawaiian dish, it means «to slice or cut», usually made with raw fish served as a salad as a starter. The most popular is the tuna, but also the salmon and octopus are getting more and more famous around the world.
It reminds me of a Japanese Cirashi but with a different disposition and much more ingredients than just sushi rice and sashimi.
I really love the fresh avocado at its perfect maturity point, obviously bought at the greengrocer in Mercado Anton Martin, and the cashew nuts giving a crunchy shift to the plate. It was not spicy but really tasty and fresh, the perfect summer bowl.
The fact that Buns & Bones in Calle Isabel buys food at the Mercado makes it the perfect example of a street food restaurant, because it’s not just about the final result, but the whole process, and asian street food in the market stalls are part of the market.
The routine is that at the end of the day Wilmer verify what he needs for the day after, on a daily basis, ordering for the following day at the market.
The first one is usually ‘Carnicería Ismael’, a very well known and established stall known for its selected meat Spanish meat like: ternera gallega, cordero castellano and carne de cerdo de Toledo. This butcher is the supplier of the best seller costilla from Buns & Bones with an average delivery of 60 kg every week for each of Buns & Bones restaurants.
Even if these are all tiny suppliers, ‘La Huerta de Sánchez’ is considered as the best greengrocer in Madrid, searching for rare fruits and vegetables for Wilmer like the pachoy (the one he is holding in the picture) or the lotus roots, a key ingredient for the crunchy chicken recipe.
All the times I’ve been to Mercado Anton Martin I’ve never deepen the knowledge of the shop ‘La Mar de Algas’, selling only Spanish seaweeds, serving the best choice products for Buns & Bones famous ramen soup.
Talking about the buns I’vet tried the duck one, which is totally recommended, but have seen how great the prawns look like I might suggest to share a poke for starter and then a fish bao for main course.
And these are the costillas first and then the pranws, as mentioned before, two of the buns best sellers.
More information: Buns & Bones
⛩ Santa Isabel, 5, 28012, Madrid ☎️ 810 521 705
⛩ San Bernardo, 12, 28015, Madrid ☎️ 913 928 953
⛩ Guzmán el Bueno, 69, 28015, Madrid ☎️ 910 562 091
