The food shops along and around Corso Umberto are among the best places to buy Sardinian products to take home. The island has a strong cheesemaking tradition, and the shops carry a range of pecorino sardo at different ages — from the fresh, mild fiore sardo to the aged, granular varieties that work as a table cheese or grated over pasta. Pani frattau (dried crispbread) and bottarga (dried and pressed mullet roe) are other Sardinian specialities well suited to travelling.
The covered market (mercato coperto) just off Corso Umberto is the most concentrated food shopping experience — stalls selling local produce, freshly butchered meat, and cured products alongside the cheese vendors. It operates mornings only, Tuesday to Saturday, with a larger Saturday market that spills into the surrounding streets.