Eveleigh Farmers Market (And Lunch!)

My first ever visit to Eveleigh Market and, to be honest, I love it. Granted, it's a bit smaller than I expected but I loved all the stalls there and I'm going back next week for sure.

The market was fairly busy, packed full of like-minded foodies (and Kylie Kwong), although it wasn't so busy as to be frustrating. Beautiful day to be strolling through the market too.

The variety of fruit, vegetables, meats, cheeses and everything else was fantastic, and everything was very reasonably priced too.

At the market, I bought a bag of these apples, $6, as well as a selection of cheeses including a fantastic NSW Brie, a bottle of Bell River Estate Reserve Tawny Port ($25), some great awarding winning Alto Olive Oil (and the guy let me have some tasty olives too for $20 all together), a tub each of Yalla hummus and capsicum salsa (both brilliant), some lovely, fresh Oak Leaf lettuce and sorrel, and a bright orange little pumpkin, which I haven't tasted yet.

Not the Oil I bought, but still pretty good!

An hour later, back at my place, Red & I cracked open the Port, set up a brilliant lunch for ourselves and sat back in the beautiful Sydney sunshine. 

Eveleigh Market (Every Saturday, 8am - 1pm)
243 Wilson Street
Darlington
www.eveleighmarket.com.au 

Sydney Fish Market, Pyrmont

 

After walking up Glebe Point Road, I reached my destination: The Sydney Fish Market. I'd wanted to go here after reading about it in the Lonely Planet Australia guidebook, but I was kind of disappointed really. I was expecting one huge market, dominated by commercial buyers and so on.

Snapper

 

What I found in reality, was several different companies selling exactly the same thing, each of them much like a large (albeit very fresh) fishmongers. Which is good, I suppose, as a consumer - you can buy one salmon fillet and so on, rather than having to buy a whole salmon, but it's just not the picture I had in my mind. Nevertheless, it was an interesting way to spend half an hour or so, exploring the markets.

Atlantic Salmon

Baja Cantina / Glebe Market, Glebe Point Road

 Glebe Market

 My weekend-ly (is that a word?) exploration of Sydney today led me to the Glebe Markets, on Glebe Point Road. I wasn't looking for anything in particular at the market, I just fancied checking it out; there is a fantastic, eclectic collection of stalls here, and I'm sure when I do have some spare cash I'll come back!

 Glebe Market

I had planned on going to a cafe or restaurant on Glebe Point Road but inside the market (held in the grounds of Glebe Public School, every Saturday from 9 till 4) I found a mexican food stall, run by Baja Cantina. Here, I got a $10 Pork Burrito, a flour tortilla jam-packed with rice, refried breans, pico de gallo, jack cheese, and a good amount of chunky pieces of juicy pork.

Not the most picturesque meal but seriously tasty!

[Accompanied by Pine-and-Lime-ade from The Citrus Factory] 

Having expected shredded or even minced pork, the delicious bitesize hunks of well-seasoned pork were a great surprise. Overall, the flavour was pretty good, and seemed fairly authentic (although I've never actually been to Mexico!). I think I'd have prefered it to be a little spicier, but there were a range of spicy sauces on offer to add yourself. The accompanying feta salad was simple but good, with fresh crispy leaves, sweet, juicy and ripe tomatoes, all dressed with a tasty yet straightforward vinaigrette. The guacamole was also good - just the right amount of acidity from the lime juice. My only real complaint is that the flour tortilla is from a packet rather than freshly made, but it tasted good all the same.

The restaurant, across the road from the market stall isn't open for lunch on Saturday, but it does open later for dinner service. Inside, the decor is very colourful, bright and bold, with typical Central American art and sculptures. There is also a sign in the window advertising their new courtyard/beer garden.

Judging by the burrito, I would go to the restaurant sometime to try a proper meal, especially with main courses all below $20.

Baja Cantina
43-45 Glebe Point Road,
Glebe, 2037,
9571 1199

Cuzco, Peru : Quails Eggs

Outside of the huge market in central Cuzco, I met this street vendor, selling hard boiled quail's eggs for around 50c for six. It was, for me, a very wierd sight to see a local with three quails in a cage, a box of raw eggs and a box of still-warm, hard boiled, peeled eggs. They were served in a paper back with plenty of sea salt and were absolutely delicious.

Inside the market, I was amazed by the variety and quantity of.... pretty much everything. It's incredibly rare to find a market as good as this back home in England; I wandered the aisles of the market here in Cuzco for over an hour, longing for a time when markets like this were the norm, rather than pre-packaged fruit & vegetables in the supermarket.