tiny little gourmet supermarket in this industrial area – an odd spot for a place quite as cute and consumer-friendly as this, but the space is welcoming and the goods are worth the drive.
and also, as an aside, my favorite indonesian restaurant has an outlet just above this space – so you can get your (gourmet) marketing done and fill your belly at (almost) the same time!
the last of three posts on the local market, and it’s such a peek into their lives, isn’t it?
I highly recommend a walk through a local market near you if you’re ever on holiday – they reveal interesting things about the people that you don’t get to see at the typical tourist-packed sightseeing spots, and they also make you think hard about the way you eat. I’m pretty proud of the fact that almost all the food I eat is wholesome and freshly prepared – courtesy of mum + grandma + an interest in cooking and the fact that the asian culture places lots of importance on home-cooking-and-eating – and seeing all these fresh groceries continually renew my appreciation for them.
this appears to be a rather meat-centric post – totally by accident – as compared to the vegetables in the last one. it was completely mortifying to my mother that they were handling raw meat so casually – laid out on trays perilously close to the ground, handled by shopkeepers without gloves (though more worrying was the seeming lack of a tap or handwashing mechanism. my mother is pretty prone to shouting out “poisonous!” from miles away when any of us show an indication to touch something – usually fruit on a tree – so perhaps you won’t be likewise alarmed by this almost careless regard for sanitised food handling.
now, if I were disappointed by the lack of exuberant color in the floating market – it was more than amply compensated by the local land market that we had a chance to visit. I’m not a wet-market sort of person; I ashamedly am much better at farmer’s markets or supermarkets. it’s not that I can’t bear to see carcasses and things like that, but rather that I truly appreciate a high level of hygiene, and wet markets are a little too wet – tautology, perhaps – for my comfort. I make exception on holiday though, when they are the best conduit from which to see how local people live and eat, and offer a quick immersion into their lives and community.
this is a first of three posts – mainly because the market was so large, and because I very much enjoyed my walk through here, and it might be useful to you as an introduction to asian markets and groceries!
okay food at the whole foods market food court along high street kensington. whole foods is admittedly a pretty awesome place for groceries – but sometimes its cooked food options aren’t the best. I’m happy enough with their salad bar on the ground floor – hugely exorbitant though – and some of their cold offerings behind the counter, but their hot food always seem a let down – usually overcooked, continuously heated food with grey-ing vegetables and I suspect, very few nutrients. the food court above fairs better, though I’ve really only patronized the mexican, the japanese and now the american barbecue store. it’s not bad food necessarily, and possibly could remain an option if you’re already doing your groceries there, but certainly not worth traveling for.
andmorefood 