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Post by Deleted on Apr 25, 2009 11:33:12 GMT
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 25, 2009 14:38:28 GMT
Beautiful!
I was like a cat, pawing at the screen trying to get at those gorgeous tomatoes.
The melons are interesting -- not so much like the heavily netted cantaloupes I'm used to in the States & Mexico. Are those muskmelons?
This is stiff-necked, but I simply can't accept the white asparagus -- they look devoid of taste & nutrition.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 25, 2009 15:44:43 GMT
I don't know exactly what kind of melons those are. I forgot one of the photos.  |
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Post by komsomol on Apr 28, 2009 7:36:47 GMT
Those yellow things to the left of the tomatoes - another type of capiscum? It seems like it.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 28, 2009 11:44:03 GMT
The must be yellow peppers since they are next to red peppers and green peppers of the same shape. But I am no expert, because I don't think I have ever bought a yellow pepper even though I have eaten them.
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Post by lagatta on Apr 28, 2009 13:19:55 GMT
They are just a cultivar of bell, horn-shaped or other peppers, though certain other sweet peppers (Cubanel) are yellow or yellowish when ripe. No particular interest in terms of taste.
bixa, those small French melons (Cavaillon is a famous producing area) are delicious and sweet. We do get them grown here but they remain more expensive than the common types. Yes, it does get quite hot here in the summer; we do grow good melons.
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 28, 2009 14:48:45 GMT
Thanks, LaGatta. One huge frustration for me in Mexico is not having access to the variety of seeds available in the States. Luckily, with the advent of online catalogues, I can now order seeds & have them sent to a relative's house for collection when I visit. I'd love to grow those melons.
The yellow peppers may not be undistinguished in taste. The chile güero, aka chile caribe, has quite a bite, for instance. (güero = pale or blonde) Some of the milder peppers with Italian names are rich and sweet.
Kerouac, do you try to stick to French-grown produce, or would that be too limiting?
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Post by Deleted on Apr 28, 2009 14:55:02 GMT
I think you could see from the price boards that just about every single item for sale is imported at this time of year. Most of those things are from Morocco or Spain, with a touch of Argentina and China... (from what I can see).
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Post by lagatta on Apr 28, 2009 15:03:46 GMT
Bixa, I meant the yellow bell peppers, or the horn-shaped sweet peppers (though there are examples of the latter from Hungary, Turkey and the Balkans that are a bit hot and very flavourful). I'm thinking of the utterly tasteless Dutch hothouse peppers.
Leaf lettuces, spinach etc should be out in the Parisian basin by now, I should think? It seems early for most of the other veg in the pictures, unless they are grown in greenhouses or at least under glass.
I have seen FROZEN SPINACH here grown in China, and frozen tiny potatoes grown in India. And "organic carrots" from California and Mexico in July. I do avoid such extremes, but it is hard to eat only local in our climate. People did, of course, but I don't think they were particularly healthy in the early spring before the first greens, when even the storage veg went limp.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 28, 2009 16:57:49 GMT
I will try to take note in the coming days of which products being sold come from France at the moment. I will also try to take some more market photos.
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 28, 2009 17:47:08 GMT
Oh -- I didn't notice the country abbreviations on first viewing.
Are the prices good, bad, or normal for this time of year? Supermarket apples (I think all imported from the US) were at 1.28 Euros here yesterday, so right around what you all are paying in Paris.
Horrible little white-hearted plum tomatoes in the supermarket here were 14.50 pesos -- .80 Euro, but the ones in your market look as though they're worth eating.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 28, 2009 18:41:11 GMT
Yes, I thought that the prices there were quite good, but it is a working class neighborhood. People in fancy areas are paying double or more for the same items.
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Post by bazfaz on Apr 28, 2009 20:39:27 GMT
Do you have Provences Halles in Paris? Or are they a southern chain of fruit=and-veg shops? I went to our nearest last Saturday for the first time and was pleasantly surprised. Local produce but also imported. There was Greek asparagus (which I never got when I lived in Greece), really fresh, at 2 euros a kilo.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 28, 2009 20:42:57 GMT
No, I have never seen Provences Halles in Paris. Must be restricted to Provence.
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Post by bjd on Apr 29, 2009 12:16:14 GMT
I bought local strawberries at the market this morning. More expensive than those in Kerouac's photos, but different smaller varieties. Despite the lack of sun and the huge amounts of rain we have been having, local strawberries are now available. In supermarkets, they seem to be mostly from Spain.
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Post by lagatta on Apr 29, 2009 14:32:50 GMT
I don't bother with imported strawberries. Our local ones are wonderful, as of course are wild blueberries from northern bogs (in Lac St-Jean and Abitibi).
Paris is one of the places where I've noticed the most difference in prices between neighbourhoods. Once I had the chance to housesit for professor friends who live near Luxembourg, so I couldn't complain about the produce prices, but they were sure higher around there than in the parts of Paris I usually stay in.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 29, 2009 21:33:26 GMT
I passed by a market stall this evening and noticed in passing that asparagus, vine tomatoes and curved cucumbers were of French provenance today. Those last two obviously came from hothouses.
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Post by rikita on Apr 30, 2009 22:15:19 GMT
white asparagus tastes great and nutritious.
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