Before going to Madrid, I had watched YouTube videos about buying “secret” cookies from cloistered nuns in a 400 year-old monastery. It seemed like a cool experience, and I made a mental note to visit the monastery when we were in Madrid. Of course, now that this has been posted on YouTube, it’s not much of a secret anymore.
The “secret” nun cookies are sold at Monasterio del Corpus Christi, and this was the line when we got there. 😂
Before the secret was out, cookie buyers have to ring a doorbell that reads “Monjas” (nuns) and say, “Tienes dulces hoy?” (“Do you have sweets today?”). If they do, the door would open and you’d walk along a corridor to the turnstile. But because there were already people ahead of us, we were spared this step.
The corridor leading to the turnstile. We had to wait about 20 minutes for our turn.
Here comes the interesting part. Since the nuns are forbidden from contact with the outside world, the entire transaction is completed using a turnstile/lazy Susan (pictured below). You say your order into the turnstile, place your money on it, and within a few minutes, it would turn and your cookies would appear along with any change! It was so fun to witness. This was also the only time we had to use cash in Spain. Can you imagine if the nuns accepted Apple/Google Pay? 😂
The nuns speak only Spanish so Baba had to ask for the cookies in very, very broken Spanish. 🤣 We used Google translate for help but it was kind of hopeless. Miraculously though, the nuns understood what Baba was asking! (If you want to see a video of Baba speaking “Spanish”, I posted it on Instagram.)
We ordered two types of cookies – one was an iced shortbread cookie and the other was a cinnamon cookie. Honestly, they weren’t the most amazing cookies we’ve had, and they were quite expensive (about €12 for 1/2 a kilo). But it was such a cool and memorable experience!
Hongs Abroad 