The Chinese food market area, San Francisco

On January 26, 2008, Linda and I had just started our around the world trip. We went to the Farmers Market at the Ferry Building in San Francisco and I posted my photos of it to the blog a week later, but I never did get around to putting up my photos of the Chinese food market area where I went later that morning.

The Fremantle Market

Fremantle was the original settlement at the mouth of the Swan River, but the British colonists soon discovered that its sandy soil could not be farmed and moved up river to Perth, leaving Fremantle to be its port, a role it still plays for all of booming Western Australia. It is surrounded by immense docking, industrial and refining facilities. It has an outstanding Maritime Museum.

The Salamanca Market, Hobart 2

The fabulous Saturday Salamanca Market in Hobart has a wide variety of stands mixed in with those selling fresh local produce which I showed in the first post. There are also street musicians out to make a few dollars or to attract business to their friends’ or families’ stands. Enjoy the show as we did on February 9, 2008.

The Salamanca Market, Hobart 1

If you are planning a trip to Tasmania, be sure to include a Saturday morning in Hobart. The market, which takes over Salamanca Street, between the old sandstone warehouses and the port, is fabulous. There are over 200 stalls selling Tasmanian products of all types. Food is of primary importance, of course. That is what I’ll show in this post. Another will show the wide variety of other offerings.

The Fox Farmer’s Market, Sydney

The former Royal Agricultural Society’s Sydney Showgrounds have been developed into the Fox Movie Studios by Rupert Murdoch. One segment of it is a retail and entertainment area where a farmer’s market is held each Wednesday and Saturday. Sue took Linda and me there on February 6, 2008. Afterwards we took our purchases back to Sue’s house and made lunch.

The Fish Market, Sydney

On February 5, 2008, Sue took Linda and me to the fish market in Sydney. It was late morning and the wholesale portion, to which we could not be admitted anyway, was long over. But there are several retail shops and quite a few stalls of prepared fish and seafood and takeway dishes. As it was a drizzly day, there were few people at the outside tables, but there were many buyers inside on this early day of Chinese New Year. 

The Ferry Building Farmers’ Market, San Francisco

On January 26, 2008, Linda and I went to the famous Saturday Farmer’s Market in and around the old Ferry Building at the Embarcadero at the end of Market Street. Inside the building contains many food shops and restaurants which are open daily. I had feared that the stalls and tents outside would not be active on this winter day with rain threatening, but there were plenty of farmers and other vendors with products which grow in the Northern California winter: many kinds of root vegetables, greens, cabbages, late fruit etc. 

My fantasy meal from 2007

The food blog which has inspired me the most is chuckeats.com. Its pursuit of the finest cuisine, its knowledgeable descriptions and its superb photography are delicious. At CountryEpicure we tend to be less exacting, more wide-ranging and more personal. Chuck has finished up this year on his blog with his Perfect Meal for 2007, fantasizing a sublime menu composed of dishes he ate in 2007. He is encouraging other bloggers to do the same and send them on to him.

Menu for Hope

Menu for Hope is an annual fundraising event inititated by the excellent Chez Pim food blog, five years ago, in the wake of the devastating tsunami in Southeast Asia, in order to help support the UN World Food Program. It is now supported by many food and restaurant bloggers. This year, the funds raised will be earmarked for the school lunch program in Lesotho.

The wine fair in Cagnes-sur-Mer

This fair used to be called the Salon des Vignerons. Twice a year small winemakers from all over France would set up their tasting stands at the horseracing track of Cagnes-sur-Mer, west of Nice. Now in its sixteenth year they have been joined by so many producers of other good things to eat that the name has been changed to the Salon du Palais Gourmand.

Eataly, Turin

On October 24, 2007, The New York Times reported that Eataly will soon be opening at 18 West 48^th Street in New York. So on October 31, Linda and I went to check out the original, which claims to be the “world’s biggest food and wine market.”

The Saturday market in Arles

Every Saturday morning there is an enormous market on both sides of the Boulevard des Lices, the broad tree-lined street which forms the south border of the old city of Arles.

Barcelonnette (Ubaye Valley)

Drive:  (approx. 6 hours driving round trip from Nice) ( Circuit #5 in the green Michelin Alpes du Sud)

(September 12, 13 2007)  We had heard about the town of Barcelonnette in the context of its history with Mexico.  At the beginning of the 19th century, two brothers left the family textile mill and headed to Louisiana and then to Mexico, where they opened a fabric store.

The emigres prospered and more French came from the Ubaye region until they had more than 100 fabric stores in Mexico.WWI saw many of the emigres return to fight for France, and most returned to their native soil by the 1950’s and built sumptuous villas in Barcelonnette and Jausiers.

The Ventimiglia Market

On September 6, 2007 Linda and I went shopping in the market of Ventimiglia, across the border in Italy. This market has more and better vegetables and fish than what we find on the French side. It also illustrates Jean Cocteau’s quip that the French are Italians in a bad mood.

The Modern – 2

Linda and I went to a “Saturday Members Night” at The Museum of Modern Art on August 11, 2007. There was a big crowd, mostly young, in the garden and the lobby, where music was blasting. There were four or five free bars scattered about. We took the elevator right up to the fifth floor, where we were alone among the familiar Cézanne, van Gogh, Picasso and Matisse paintings.

Le Refuge de Longon – Parc Mercantour

On June 22, 2007, six of us left Beuil (1,442 m) in Bruno’s van and drove over the winding Col de la Couillole (1,678 m) to the tiny old perched village of Roubion. We went through its very narrow streets and through a hole in the rock behind it which led to a one lane unpaved hillside road through woods.

Kuznechny Market – St. Petersburg

On June 16, 2007, Linda and I visited the large, covered Kuznechny Market in a residential neighbourhood near the Dostoyevsky Museum. There were not many customers at 10:00 am, although some counters, such as the dairy products, were busy.

Les Ombres

27 Quai Branly 01 47 53 68 00,

www.lesombres-restaurant.com

Les Ombres is a brand new restaurant in Paris’s newest museum, the Musée Branley. Even with that important piece of information, it is not the easiest restaurant to find, particularly at night even with a GPS-equipped cab driver (it seems every cab driver in Paris has one) who must, therefore, not think it necessary to keep up with cultural happenings.

THE MODERN

9 West 53rd St, 212-408-6326

Danny Meyer does it again! So many of our favorite restaurants have sprung from Meyer’s capable hands—Gramercy Tavern, Union Square, Table, 11 Madison Park, etc—and now this gem overlooking the sculpture garden at MOMA is a gift to all.