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Business was done, the sun was shining, I needed a walk to refresh before heading back to the airport. I had been told that the visit of the fairly new Fresh Market in Bratislava is a must for any serious market and food lover.

Architecture

So I walked down a very busy road with my luggage which kind of swallowed the annoying sounds of the wheels of my trolley case. I arrived in a commercial neighborhood, an area where one mainly come with a car, and yes underground parking was widely available. A rather unusual place for a market hall but making it easier to established new architecture. This market hall has an industrial look: high ceilings, large glass fronts, concrete floors and columns, chip boards as temporary separators. The spacious feeling is accentuated with a large plaza on the ground floor and wide, a wide stairway leads to the upper floor. A generous setup.

The plaza on the ground floor is reserved for the vegetables, fruit, pickles (it is autumn) and the like. Big wooden boxes placed on pallets cover the floor adding even more to the industrial flair. There is no clear separation between the different traders, it is not even clear if they are independent ones or employees of the market hall. So I am not sure how a relationship between individual traders and customers are being built up. Nevertheless the choice is wide.

Next to these movable structures the shops on the ground floor form kind of two circles. The setup reminds a bit a mall, the structures are standardized and allow a quick change in case a new shop needs to replace an old one. The signs with the shop name are all standardized in terms of size and colors, no extravaganza, individualism is expressed in font and name.

The upper floor which is reached through the wide stairway or elevator, is basically a food court. It allows to easily look down at the market scenery while eating and drinking. The large glass front provides a lot of sunshine, the artistically arranged neon lights add to it.

So there is generous space to present all the goodness of this area and the planet in this market hall.

Hipster place?

After having tried to decipher the architecture I focused a bit more on the content, meaning food. The Fresh Market has been described by my friends as a hipster place, well I would not get that far but there is certainly more than good coffee and a great selection of craft beer. And since I do not know where to write about it in this post, I’ll do it here: in the market hall there is also a Bitcoin ATM (see photo gallery). I have never seen it before, I don’t know how it works, but I think it is not only hip but also very interesting. For any hints please: https://twitter.com/askans.

International orientation

I was also told that the market is probably one of the most internationally oriented food places in the city. And indeed, Turkey, Croatia, France, Indian, Thais, Arab, Italian and more are well represented, not only in the food court part. In the produce section there is clearly an orientation towards quality, also organic. Be it cheese, meat, sausages, vegetables or some processed food.

The coffee shop showed solid barista skills and quality, and of course I could not resist the craft beer shop. The owner was very helpful in finding me some very good local craft beer and explaining me a bit about the beer situation in Slovakia. The raspberry and lime gose from Unorthodox Brewing was particularly well balanced and worth more than one bottle.

A little confusion came up when passing by a stall looking at a familiar cheese, not from Slovakia, but from Croatia. It was the Paški Sir, a truly good Croatian cheese I had bought at the Dolac market hall in Zagreb. I looked up, and it was indeed a stall full of Croatian goodies. I was very tempted to buy it, but I was here for the local stuff.

Continuing the walk

As autumn started, lots of pumpkins were on display, but also pickles and fermented vegetables aka sauerkraut. The choice of dried beans was really great. I crossed a few meat, dairy, fish and organic stalls but did not find a noticeable bakery (but there is one, I am sure). Basically it was easy to find a lot of things for good cooking, unfortunately not all suitable for cabin luggage transportation.

My shopping

Before doing my little shopping I ate at the food court. Most stalls were already closed and only a few people had appetite at this time of day. And indeed the whole market hall was not really busy, which surprised me, especially considering the many fans on Facebook. Google is indicates that the main traffic is around lunch, probably coming from the neighboring offices & businesses. And according to one of the vendors, Christmas and Easter are the peak times as well. So I had a free choice for seats and could enjoy my Slovak pulled pork with mashed potatoes in a calm environment.

Just before leaving it was time to do shopping. I got some funny looking organic wheat puffs – my curiosity was bigger than my expectations. Slovak cheeses found a place in my luggage, the organic cow milk one was really good. And I could not resist to get some local salami and bacon. I should rethink a little bit my choices and go beyond cheese and sausage, but it is convenient and most of the times really good.

Epilogue

I have hard times to judge the Bratislava Fresh Market. I am more used to the old fashioned markets not so much to such modern concepts. I have to admit that they cater for fairly good quality produce in a convenient way especially for truly urban people. It is certainly easier this way to do some good marketing and attract crowds who feel uncomfortable at old fashion markets. Still this market hall needs a bit more time to get what I would call a soul and personality to become a true urban public space. Nevertheless it seems there is a trend towards such market halls or food halls as the New York Times can observe it in the US.

All in all: The Fresh Market in Bratislava embraces local and international produce and food in a modern concept, a contrast to old fashion markets.

A little link list:

• The original website of the market
• On Facebook and Instagram
• A nice Youtube video
• My other posts on Bratislava markets
• A collection of Bratislava markets from The Culture Trip

The post Food mall – Fresh Market in Bratislava / Slovakia appeared first on Food & Farmers' Markets.

Grey winter day

Is it a good idea on a grey winter day to visit the market? Not sure, but it is a good excuse to get some fresh air when in the office the whole day.

Surprising structures

The central market of Bratislava (Trhovisko Miletičova – Miletička) at Miletičova street is fairly large (see map below). It consists of many permanent structures for bakeries, butchers, cheese mongers etc., a roof structure covering the produce stalls and some random pop-up tables for people with small offerings.

The permanent structures, all wooden huts, usually had small windows where the customers could make their orders from the outside. This reminded me of shops in areas where theft is abundant. So I was wondering how customers were seen here. In some cases customers could enter the stall through narrow doors, which was more welcoming.

The slightly run down roof structure would give a very nice shade on a hot sunny day, but on a grey winter day it might somber you mood a bit. At least until you meet the friendly vendors. They had no problem letting me take pictures of their beautiful merchandise. And indeed they piled up vegetables with care and sense for beauty which looked a more inviting and more diverse than the one at the Nová Tržnica market hall. Indeed the merchandise under the roof was the most interesting one in the market and no small window separated the clientele from the vendor.

The pop-up dealers had a very limited offer, one product category only, be it pumpkin seeds, bread, bakery goods or so. Several of these vendors were old ladies who looked like they needed to add some Euros to their pensions.

The discoveries

It seemed that the market was in peak season for pumpkin seeds and pickles. The variety was impressive.

The pumpkin seeds came roasted, salted, unsalted, with paprika powder and more. The roasted ones are especially good for tourists, ready to  nibble, without the need to spit hulls. Strangely enough the vendor selling me those was from Hungary. No idea why he had to come to Bratislava for his small business. He made clear that he preferred the Budapest markets over this one. Make the comparison yourself when reading my post on the central market hall in Budapest.

The pickles were really amazing to look at. Besides the sauerkraut, all kinds of vegetables were pickled the home made way. They were sold out of large buckets, like the stuffed cucumbers and peppers or in little plastic jars. Those were layered with care and a sense of colourful beauty (see the picture gallery). The home made horseradish and other preserves gave an impression on what the local cuisine likes.

The vegetables, more or less of the season, were arranged beautifully, lush but without wasteful presentation. Cabbages, cauliflower, peppers, tomatoes, zucchinis, broccoli, radishes in different varieties, beans … all were there, enough to create a nice variety of winter dishes. Inspiring.

A few things I did not figure out. What do you need 15 cm large paper thin wafers for? They break so easily. Then there is this long bread dumpling which is so light, without real taste. I ate it once, basically it is good for dipping into rich sauces, but …

The butchers had simple choices of meat and especially dried sausages (good to bring home). I was most impressed by the variety of fatback offered, clearly abundant – looks like hearty cooking in the region. The typical Slovak smoked cheese was also available, unfortunately it has never been one of my favourites, despite being offered with nice patterns on the thin rind.

When you are hungry on the spot

Some stalls offer ready made food like Lángos (a deep fried flat bread), potato pancake, and local hearty dishes with or without meat. Even though I am addicted to Lángos, I did not eat anything, so no possibility to give a recommendation.

All in all: When looking for what Slovaks buy for cooking and for local discoveries, probably the place to be in Bratislava.

A little link list:

• The facebook page of the market with pictures, videos and other information
• Small post at spottedbylocals.com
• A post with many pictures from 52 weeks in Slovakia
• Different: a fashion shooting at the market from Donna Iveh Fashion Blog
• More pictures on my photo site

The post Central market, Bratislava / Slovakia appeared first on Food & Farmers' Markets.

Don’t go there, they will rip you off because they want to make a quick buck with lower quality products. Take care of your wallet, it might get pick pocketed.

Well those were the advices I got, but I did not listen. And it was to my advantage.

The Nová Tržnica (market hall) in Bratislava is a fairly large concrete building dating from the socialist area (1981). On the ground floor there is mainly stalls for produce and a few pubs, whereas upstairs it looks a bit more like a mall without the glittery part. The inside architecture shows concrete, large pipes, large stairs as well as large windows which try to create a grand ambiance. This grand ambiance was contrasted by the not so large stalls with vendors dealing in retail, not in wholesale. And the bright colours of some stalls, pipes etc. created some nice contrast.

Unfortunately it was a bit late when I had the chance to tour the market hall. The market serves local people rather than tourists with daily food, drinks and a few other items. Pubs, little restaurants are to be found on both floors all with a basic charm which may be called authentic.

Besides fruits, vegetables, flowers there is also local cheeses & meats available. In Slovakia smoked cheeses are quite common and so they are to be found here as well, often as string cheese. And it is not only cow milk which is being used, but also sheep or goat milk. Bryndza a creamy sheep milk cheese, available as well, serves as the main ingredient of Bryndzové halušky a national Slovak dish. Besides Bryndza it consists of gnocchi like potato dumplings and bacon.

The dried sausages I bought were quite hearty and nicely spiced, a winner. The smoked pork belly fat should have been worth a trial as well.

A unique stall was the one which filled three different type of wines from tap into all kinds of bottles, plastic and other ones. Good recycling of bottles I guess.

All in all: as daytripper.sk put it: it is a good place to look for if you do not need glamour and hipness.

A little link list:

• Pictures of the building in Wikipedia Commons
• Basic information about the markets in Bratislava from bratislava.info
• A post from daytripper.sk which characterizes the market very well

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