Market day ~ what did you buy?

[bixaorellana]

That would be so great, Don Cuevas. There are three residents of Mexico on AnyPort, but only one who can report with any real authority on Mexico City.

Kerouac, that's a "burro's tail" I bought at the market.

[Deleted]

So... do you chop it up over ice cream or is it better in soup?

[hwinpp]

What did you do with the blood sausage, Bixa? And why is the bread 'empty'?

Right now we don't get any more eatable flowers. Everything has dried up and choice is poor. The vegetable prices have even gone up slightly.

[bixaorellana]

HW, please see here, #2227 for what I did with the blood sausage. The bread is quite hard. It's as though a round loaf was baked, then cut in half and put back in the oven. But it doesn't taste stale, it tastes fresh.

We had unseasonable rains, which probably helped native foods like those flowers.

[imec]

[bixaorellana]

I'm getting so smart from being on this forum. I recognize the peameal bacon! What are the lovely links, please?

[bazfaz]

Our local market is almost dead in winter because there is no local fruit and veg and no tourists. But I did buy some gratons de canard. Maybe I'll get to eat them tomorrow.

[cristina]

At the Middle Eastern market yesterday, I bought wheat berries. At least I hope they are wheat berries since I couldn't read the labeling. I also bought dried sour cherries. The latter I should post on the "impulse" thread as I have no idea what I'm going to do with them.

Right now, I am wishing I had bought sausage. Thank you imec.

[imec]

Mar 14, 2010 3:36:38 GMT bixaorellana said:

I'm getting so smart from being on this forum. I recognize the peameal bacon! What are the lovely links, please?

Quite right bixa! As for the links... the large sausage is a coarse garlic sausage or kielbasa (known around here as Koob). The smaller ones in the vacuum pack is essentially the same thing but hot dog size - called "kubi dogs".

[hwinpp]

I wouldn't mind spending some time at Imec's place... these sausages, the blueberry cake and lemon curd tarts, the gumbo... mmm!

[bixaorellana]

I am so excited -- I really scored today.


It posed for front and back portraits, see below.


Some of you will undoubtedly recognize my prize immediately. If so, I need advice. It tastes wonderful and is beautifully cooked, but gad is it salty!


Could I maybe soak it in cold water for about an hour, then do something vinegary with it, to serve cold? Suggestions, please!

[Deleted]

The skin looks like fish skin, so I am perplexed by the bones coming out of the corners.

[Deleted]

... unless those are wooden sticks, but that doesn't advance me in my comprehension.

[bixaorellana]

Oh, sorry -- I wasn't trying to pose a riddle. I simply assumed that all the Europeans here would instantly say, "oh -- eel". Yes, they're wooden sticks, maybe to keep the piece of meat from curling as it cooks.

[hwinpp]

Eel. Saw it in a second, of course I'm European

SPOILER: Click to show

No, I read it on Bixa's other thread ;D

[Deleted]

Actually, I have mostly eaten fresh stewed eel rather than the smoked flattened variety. Eel chunks in stew are rather like pieces of garden hose.

[Kimby]

sort of like abalone, then?

[bixaorellana]

I was so pleased with photographing & posting the nice crinoline lettuce I got yesterday, that I forgot to report on the really wonderful find -- bacalao. Yes, the same vendor who has the eel had bacalao. That is something that's usually only available here at Christmastime, and then it's terribly expensive and usually old and yellow. This stuff is white and flexible and not cheap, but certainly reasonable.

So ....... suggestions for using it? I bought a quarter-kilo.

[bixaorellana]

There was another wonderful market find today. I was tripping through the crowded & hot market, more than ready to escape. As I passed a stand without paying attention to what it sold, a woman sang out, "Requesón!" (ricotta). I pulled up short and turned around. She opened a dried corn husk and held out the cheese for me to try. I think I was making embarrassing noises, the stuff is so good. I had some tonight on a lettuce, tomato, & cucumber salad -- ambrosial.

                           

[hwinpp]

Sounds good, I like the packaging!

[cristina]

Bixa, I am intrigued by the corn husk presentation. I'm trying to imagine the ricotta cooked in corn husks, anyway. While I've never made ricotta, I think it is generically easy to make. Just wondering how the corn husks got involved. I am spinning an elaborate fantasy in my mind right now, that probably has nothing to do with the reality of ricotta in corn husks in your neck of the woods.

[cristina]

I went to a market on Saturday. This was my first visit to this particular farmer's market, and unfortunate because it is near end of season here. I paid a leg or so for organic arugula and left another few limbs for my fingerling potatoes.

This market also serves food though, as it is attached or affiliated with an important restaurant here ( important in the spirit of community) The restaurant actually does offer excellent food. And they have set up outdoor cooking stations for certain foods.

I missed photographing the produce. But I will remember to go back during early or high season.

I did get a picture of the crépe maker. The slowest one on the planet.



The highlight were the made to order soufflés. We placed our order with an apparently random woman, but she found us when they were ready.

Here is the lemon soufflé (yes, I broke the crust):



Here is the chocolate soufflé (OK, sorry, I ate it before I remembered my phone takes pictures.):



The two soufflés were $8 total. Next time, I will skip slow Mr Crépe and just eat these. Very, very good.

Ummm, even though I kept saying "I," my daughter was my partner in crime. I really did not eat two soufflés and a (really stuffed, sweet) crépe all by myself.

[bixaorellana]

~?~
I was positive I'd written a fairly long answer to your corn husk comment, Cristina, complete with photo of how cheese is sold here, but where is it? Maybe I posted it in another thread.

Anyway, it was just to say that farmer cheese is always sold setting on a corn leaf, usually a green one, but sometimes the dried. I think the ricotta is just packed into the husk as a handy way of packaging a certain amount to sell. I went to the market yesterday & saw someone else selling it in the husks.

And yesterday I bought lots of mangos, which is Annie's fault because of her thread about drying food. The ones I got were 2 kilos for 15 pesos, but the vendor urged me to get 3 kilos for 20 pesos. I was reluctant because of having to lug all that weight along with my other purchases, but succumbed. And what mangos they are! 6 kilos turned out to be 9 mangos, to give an idea of their size. They're so meaty that I have to cut the flesh off in order to eat it -- it's simply too thick to be bitten into. You don't even want to know how good they taste.

Are you planning on re-visiting the farmers' market again? It looks like a good place to frequent, not just because of elegant street food, but because maybe lots of people visiting might encourage more produce vendors to participate.

[cristina]

Thanks for the response Bixa... packaging in cornhusks is certainly an environmentally friendly way to go.

I will continue to attend that market, although I find the produce to be quite a bit more expensive than my regular Wednesday market. Its worth it just for the soufflées, I think.

I went to the Wednesday farmer's market today but left empty-handed. It was really crowded at the time I got there and this makes me a cranky shopper. Besides, I was in the mood for mangoes but they had none.

[Kimby]

Still waiting for our markets to get up and running for the season. First Saturday in May through October for the main produce/flower market, with a Tuesday evening market in July and August. A separate craft market nearby on Saturdays. Down by the river a competing farmers market on Saturdays that also offers meats and cheeses. And a Sunday market has just announced it will be opening in the park by the carousel.
Will be a long time before local-grown produce shows up, though.

[imec]

Wonderful Quebec charcuterie and raw milk cheeses from Montreal's Marche Jean-Talon. Many thanks and warmest regards to lagatta for taking the time to give me a wonderful tour of a market I look forward to returning to often.

[bixaorellana]

My horrible envy is fairly curdling the photo above!

Gosh, that looks wonderful, Imec. How fabulous to go to another part of your own country and find such fabulous regional items.

[imec]

You can imagine my disappointment upon realizing I had forgotten my camera back in Winnipeg - the market was a visual delight.

[Kimby]

Well, since our farmers markets haven't started yet for the season, I broke down and bought these plants at the big box store. (Since they wouldn't be blooming yet if they were growing in my yard, I didn't post this at What's IN BLOOM?)

[lagatta]

Kimby, those are so pretty!

The Jean-Talon market is just moving from its winter to summer arrangement; in the wintertime in our climate, some wings of the market are enclosed in siding (sort of like a barn) and this is dismantled in the springtime and all the outdoor stalls set up. I had imec's itinerary set up based on what he wanted to take home (scouted out the day before to make sure all shops were open and not temporarily shut as the market moulted), since he had to make a flight back to Winnipeg. After imec securely in a taxi (which arrived immediately, as in a film) I went back to the market and bought a couple of incredibly banal things - onions, some spinach and herbs etc. What was interesting to observe was the workers setting up the stands, repainting and revarnishing them if need be. The spring is so early this year that everything should be set out this week.

As for today, I bought some fresh smelts, which are in season now. Yum. I love fresh smelts.

(After she cooked 'em, the kitchen smelt). Sorry.