At the Market April 5, 2009
Spring seems to have finally arrived in Philadelphia, so I decided to take advantage of the nice weather and head out to my local market. I live in just about the heart of South Philly, which means my market is the Italian Market – a large outdoor market that spans for many, many blocks along South 9th Street. It’s predominately (and historically) Italian – obviously – but it’s expanding southward with an influx of Mexican and Asian vendors. It’s a great mix of cultures, food, and people.
We were starting to run low on Claire’s food cubes and it was time to stock up on fresh veg and fruit. It’s easy to come to the market and stock up on groceries without spending a lot of money. At least compared to my local supermarket, where the produce is overpriced and there are aisles and aisles of food ‘products’ (but to be fair, the employees are nice and I can walk(!) there from my house).
Here is just one stand that had both veg (above) and fruit (below). Each block has at least one or two vendors that sell a variety of produce.
Here is a picture of my favorite fruit stand. The fruit always looks good and presented beautifully. This vendor is one of the few that tries to display his fruit. This day, I bought three pounds of apples for $2.
It was time to make another meat cube for Claire and I decided I should try my hand at making some beef for her. We are not typically a meat-eating family (despite our love of just about all things pork – by the way, if you’re at the Italian Market, take a step off of 9th St. onto Christian to Fiorella’s, where the sausage is so fresh they don’t refrigerate it!…but now I’m on a tangent); I thought I’d give beef a go for Claire – and make some for us as well. My butcher was kind enough to let me snap some pictures while he worked.
Claire and I had a great time at the market. It’s a great place for her to people watch and see all kinds of new things. Now that the weather is warmer, she enjoys the trip a lot more. I just have to work on limiting how much I buy since I have to carry it all home.