Toronto, I like you

Winters must be cold in Toronto. This is the impression I got from the St. Lawrence market hall in the heart of Toronto, Canada.

Lots of hearty products which fill you instantly with joy and energy to overcome any harsh weather conditions. It was warm at the time of the visit but the resistance to stuff my belly was rather weak.

The St. Lawrence market hall is conveniently located in downtown in this rather pedestrian friendly North American city. It is an old spacious building with two floors where sales happen and a partly covered outdoor seating place for consumption of the foods served inside.

But the market hall does not only serve meals, it has a wide range of produce available to cater for home cooking. Toronto is a multicultural city par excellence. Nevertheless the majority of the offerings seemed to target consumers with a rather European background, thus reflecting the neighborhood.

Diving into the St. Lawrence Market Hall

The peameal bacon sandwich is the thing to try in Toronto according to several guides. It is all about a juicy peace of bacon supposed to be rolled in ground peas. I could see that it was rolled in something but I could not taste any pea. It was rather disappointing when measuring it against the hype. Still a decent sandwich though.

That experience made me skeptical about the market hall offering, which in hindsight was not fair.

Comparing with US markets

As I have been a several times in the USA, I always compared my experience there with the one in the St. Lawrence market hall. There are a few commonalities and a few differences.

Meat

The meat selection is very broad in quantity and in terms of cuts. Emphasis is on beef but I found more game meat than in the US. The game was focused on deer and wild boar, I was hoping for more “exotic” meats. Maybe this is not the area for that.

I love the displays here, they are so generous as if space is unlimited for the merchants. you have to truly walk along a single stall to get an idea of the offering, just glimpsing form one point will not help. This is probably what meat eaters consider as paradise on earth.

Considering this large offering, one must assume that people are still cooking a lot. The meat merchants all had their little ready made food stand, like ribs, wings etc. but that looked rather tiny in comparison, indicating only a small portion of the clientele not wanting to cook.

Nevertheless a merchant complained that things had change over time, that they sold more in the “old days”, and that people were not cooking as much anymore. That would mean that all the meat would be left unsold in the stall. Of course this is not the case. I am aware that in the “Western world” I am living in, home cooking is on a decline, and I see streetfood becoming more popular. Still the stall displays showed a still persistent need for produce.

Fish

Toronto is situated at lake Ontario, not exactly seaside but seems to be full of fish and seafood lovers. Octopus, salmon, shrimps, squid, oysters, tuna, trout, halibut, swordfish, cod, lobster and much more on several stalls. I did not ask how often the fish mongers get new deliveries as they looked fresh to me. Strangely enough I did not see whole fish, only filet. That’s a pity.

Cheese

The cheese stalls surprised me the most. In the US these sections are rather small, focusing on more or less local production. Here I saw so many European imports from many countries and regions. The selection would make many cheese stores in Europe jealous.

I do not know where this is coming from, maybe because the French influence via Québec is quite strong. Or maybe the import regulations in Canada are more liberal than in the US?

Some of the cheeses were brands you may find also in European supermarkets, others were more artisan cheeses even hard to find in my home town. I had difficulties to spot artisan Canadian cheeses, being overwhelmed by the wide choices.

Vegetable & fruit

Generally speaking I saw similar choices here in Toronto in comparison to Vancouver and the US markets I have visited over the years. The share of stalls with vegetables was smaller but one could find all the seasonal products. Green asparagus, all the lettuce, topical fruit, a nice selection of potatoes etc. Of course, as convenience food is gaining traction, there were enough plastic containers with cut fruit or nuts to go.

I was impressed with a couple stalls showing a wide selection of mushrooms. They get my attention as they look good to me and I am still wondering how to best prepare them.

Being unfair to vegetables

When writing over vegetable on farmers’ markets I am lacking a bit of imagination and do not present them as something special. Which is a bit unfair. Yes colorful displays catch my attention without noticing the details too much. Probably this is due to my lack of having a deep enough understanding of their origins, quality and distinctions in aromas or taste.

When I see a tomato or a lettuce or an onion, do I have an idea if it will be a good or not? No.

I still have memories from my times as a student in Turkey when the tomatoes and other veggies really had taste. And they were not necessarily organic. The same was valid for the potatoes I ate during an internship at a Northern German farm, they were so lovely. For insiders the varieties were Linda and Granola. Linda, organically grown, has gained popularity in the meantime, whereas Granola is hard to find.

Since then I have not been overwhelmed by the commercial produce. But the homegrown carrot from my colleague I got recently truly had a great taste.

I need to kick myself into my rear to get a little more exploratory here.

What else?

Toronto is a truly multicultural city. I had been walking through Portuguese, Chinese, Indian and Pakistani influenced neighborhoods. On some other spots I saw many more different cultures without having seen their respective centers. This is somehow also reflected in the St. Lawrence market hall, I observed it mainly on the food level, not so much on the produce level.

Salsa & guacamole

I go the biggest joy out a Mexican stall where I bought homemade salsa and guacamole. Eating them at the hotel was a real feast! So much flavor, nice acidity and a little trip through so many aromas. No idea how it had been created, where all the necessary ingredients imported? I doubt it.

Ukrainian bakery

The Ukrainian bakery called “future bakery”. The family fled from Ukraine to Canada with the outbreak of second World War. The name “future bakery” expressed their wish to look forward into a new future. Still the products have their roots in the former home of the family.

More goodies

The St. Lawrence market hall is not small and therefore offers a wide array of goodies which caught briefly my eyes.

A wide choice of honeys

A surprise; truffles!

Italian Pasta: fresh and imported

Of course maple syrup

Wine as well and so many other specialties.

All in all

Is it worth to have a look at the St. Lawrence market hall? For sure. When you are hungry it is good place to find yummy street food and small items to eat on the spot.

When you want something to bring home for cooking it is a great place to find a large variety of produce often of very good quality, still in a laid back fashion. Not snobbish for sure, but it would not harm to have a better display of all the goods, currently it is rather squattered and confusing. That could elevate it to very fine place.

It would be a shame not to visit the St. Lawrence market hall when in Toronto, it gives such a good introduction of what people eat here, I assume predominantly for buyers with some European heritage.

A little link list

• The official website
• The Instagram account

Map to the St. Lawrence Market Hall

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Getting there

Walking from the tramway to reach “Les Halles de Lyon – Paul Bocuse” as the market hall in Lyon is called, was a bit of a challenge. Lots of construction was happening, tall office buildings and parking lots did not make it easy to spot the location. Considering that the city is known as a French gourmet capital, the surroundings do not reflect such a reputation, I expected some more romanticism. Furthermore the main entrance, a large glass front, is facing a busy road. This is how you are being welcomed at a small paradise which carries the name of one of the most renown chefs of our times: Paul Bocuse.

Excitement

Entering the building everything is a bit dark this early morning, no hectic yet. No glass ceiling brings in more light. Cafés are already operating and vendors are having a little breakfast, chatting with each other before going back to their stalls. I sat down had my coffee as well, accompanied by buttered breads – perfect start of the day.

I continued my walk through the aisles to get an overview of all the 50 or so stalls. The more stalls I saw the more I got excited: yes this is an epicentre of French food and cuisine! All the meat cuts with clear provenance of French regions from quality producers. The bounty of French artisan cheeses and pâtés. Seafood as used in high scale restaurants, smoked salmon which is still sliced by hand in front of the customer. Artisan French breads which are definitely different to those available at supermarkets or ordinary bakeries.

I believe everything needed in high quality for classic French cuisine is available there, not so much from other countries. Okay, vegetables and fruit are not so well represented. I was not so impressed by the chocolate makers and wine vendors, probably because they did not get my attention as they seemed to be rather brands than artisan producers. Not sure if I was too biased.

And – good for tourists – there is enough ready made food to be eaten on the spot.

French splendor

After the first round walking around where I felt like in a Christmas Wonderland, overwhelmed by the quality choice, I slowed down to enjoy the individual stalls. It was worth it.

The butchers showed meat from all kinds of regions, well labelled and presented: sheep which comes from the Mont Saint Michel region – the pre-salted ones as they are called since the grass they are feeding off has higher salt content; beef from distinct regions of France I have not heard of (e.g. Aubrac, Salers); veal raised by the mother (cow) and not separated; wild rabbits from Garenne, still in their fur (to prove that is truly game?); wild ducks; all parts of the pork which can be cooked: feet, ears and the like; the famous Bresse chicken.

The sausage side was rich as well: ham from all regions of Europe (Parma, Aosta valley, Serrano …), salamis, blood sausage, Figatellu from Corsica (liver sausage) and more. All the pâtés looked fabulous, I have never seen so many in one place.

One thing which always fascinated me since I tried it the first time in my life is French goose liver. It is one of those products where I have constantly the pictures of forced fed geese in my mind, but it is very hard to resist the temptation … For those who cannot resist they will find a very nice choice in this market hall.

The breads displayed at one stall were labelled like I have never seen it before: how the flour was milled, what type of flour grade was used, duration of fermentation, type of yeast etc. I bought some of and enjoyed it a lot. One bakery was based on a type of franchise model with a dozen or so bakeries in France. The focus is high quality and teaching their independent bakers in the right methods usage of products to have breads and pastries of superior quality. Even though I am sceptical on franchise models when it comes to food, I had to admit that the products did not look ordinary at all.

Despite being quite far from the sea, the market hall offers a great selection of seafood: live lobster, spiny lobster, oysters from all kinds of origins, scallops in their shells, sea snails, shrimps, … Of course the fish selection matched it easily, including Norwegian and Scottish smoked salmon, angler, but also huge fish livers – I forgot from which fish, but maybe you can identify it in the picture gallery.

The choice of artisan cheeses matched the overall approach of the market hall, the French regions were well represented. Be it from cow, sheep or goat milk. As I am spoiled by my favourite cheese vendor at the Siegburg market where I live close by, I did not pay enough attention to the great offering.

Other delicacies were artisan pasta, specialities like quenelle de Lyon, beautiful candied fruit, great pork cracklings called “grattons“. The latter I got to know as the French guide of an American food tourist group referred to it and warned not to eat to many of them. A warning I did not take serious after the purchase, the cracklings really tasted just great without any bad after-effects, home made ones would not beat them.

Eating out

Market halls are not only places where to buy produces and have a close contact to vendors and other customers, but they are also place where you may eat and munch your way through. The market hall of Lyon is no exception and the choices vary greatly. From a simple breakfast coffee to sophisticated little things like a fish mousse with shrimps, the offering is wide. Still it covers more French than international cuisine, some exceptions like Paella and fresh pasta co-exist easily with lobster, spiny lobster dishes and Burgundy food. There is certainly no need to leave the hall for lunch …

Summarizing my visit

I went to the market hall at around 9 o’clock in the morning when the vendors were preparing the day, sharing coffees together and taking a deep breath for the rest of the day when things got a bit more crowded. So diving in was made easy for me, vendors had still time to answer my questions and I could take pictures without disturbing anyone. And to me the visit was a great experience, I did not regret being there a single moment and seeing the famous French cuisine alive and kicking at least on the more traditional side.

All in all: One of the great places to be for produce & food – representing France at its best –  a must see

A little link list:

• The official website – only in French
• The official Twitter account and the Facebook one
• Pictures different from my perspective by Vickie Cunningham
• Laurel Robbins favours the Lyon market hall even over La Boqueria in Barcelona

The post Divine – Market hall Paul Bocuse, Lyon / France appeared first on Food & Farmers' Markets.

This market is huge, really huge – and busy.

Intro

The Maastricht treaty is probably what makes this city sound so familiar. But it has more to offer, especially style and good shopping opportunities in a very nice historic setting. The Friday market adds its share to enhance the shopping experience. And it is very large, according to official sources up to 300 stalls. This alone is impressive. I am not sure, but I guess the produce and food section represents more than half of all these stalls, the other ones were more into clothes, textiles, bike spare parts and equipment etc.

What was impressive?

This Friday market exudes a real buzz. Even in the earlier hours people queued at some stalls for their shopping. The vendors are very communicative in many languages (Dutch, English, German & French) to attract their clientele and serve them with high efficiency. The supply never seems to end. All produce, be it fruits, vegetables, meat, fish etc.  are piled and busy hands make sure that those piles never get to small to impress potential buyers.

In the meat and fish section, it seemed that there is a zero waste policy. All parts of the animals were being sold. You will find minor fish cuts to make a fish soup of fish stock. I am not sure what chicken feet are good for, but there certainly will be a recipe somewhere in this city.

The fish stalls are something worth visiting. First there are plenty of them, each with a wide choice. Most of them are clustered at the Northern side of the market making comparisons very easy. Not being familiar enough with fish I would not be able to name them, but it is certainly overwhelming to see the different shapes and colours. It seemed that most come from the North Sea. I even found oysters, which always makes me happy. The further offering consisted also of smoked fish and street food, often seafood in a batter and then fried. I am not sure how one chooses her favourite fish stall, but all looked great.

The meat stalls were selling mainly chicken and some pork as well as convenience food. Chicken was rarely sold as a whole but each butcher seemed to have a big pile of each of the chicken parts: breast, wings, drumsticks, heart, feet, you name it. Next to those chicken specialists who reminded of wholesale business, there were more traditional butchers with a larger variety of animals and often meals for taking home like goulash etc. Lately I seem to suddenly “discover” rabbit on each market, this market not being an exception. The whole rabbit I saw came from France (see picture gallery). The sausage choice was rather limited comparing to what one will encounter in Germany.

When in the Netherlands it is a must to buy some cheese – Gouda is certainly the most known one, still the country has more to offer. Strangely enough, I saw only a few stalls in comparison to the meat & fish ones and they were distributed across the market. One of the characteristics of Dutch cheese is that it is being sold in different maturity groups, from young to very old. The older the cheese the more concentrated is the flavour, the young ones are very mild. I got a few: an old gouda (approx. 18 months, one with cumin, a young cheese and a Limburger (the one with distinct odour). Happiness back home!

The Netherlands are a hub of the global flower trade. Alsmeer is the location of the world’s largest trading centre for flowers and plants. Maastricht market makes a show case out of it. Many stalls offer flowers, bouquets and more in all kinds of colours. Enough to make the right choice for a loved one.

The fruit & vegetable stalls were a plenty as well. They looked like wholesale business going retail. Boxes and boxes full of what the greenhouses, fields and orchards across the planet are able to offer in large quantities. The prices were low, which also explains why so many people were doing their purchases here.

Besides all the produce, many street food stalls serve the market: fish & chips, all kinds of Asian ones, filled donuts and much more. Trying a mixed seafood platter – with batter and fried, accompanied  by a remoulade was rather disappointing. The donut filled with apple was a winner.

By the way: the Maastricht Friday market has been awarded best one in the Netherlands in 2014.

What was less impressive?

Despite the wide choice, especially when it comes to fish, this market offers rather commodities than specialties or gourmet stuff. Being familiar with European markets, there will be no real surprise. To a certain extent it is a huge outdoor supermarket – for feeding people in an affordable manner it is the place to be.

Some of the street food would have deserved a more sophisticated twist, it would make them truly unique. This is especially valid for the fish food.

But the market still fascinates me, my thoughts are coming back to all what I saw. There is some attraction I cannot explain. Probably it is the impressive buzz at the market, it gives me a great incentive to cook more often with truly fresh stuff.

All in all: A market which is attractive because of its sheer size and buzz. The large choice and quantity of fish is remarkable.

A little link list:

• The official site of the city with market information
• A small but nice post with beautiful pictures from the Crème fraîche blog
• More pictures on my photo site

The post The big one – Maastricht Friday market / Netherlands appeared first on Food & Farmers' Markets.

Some time ago I blogged on Soulard Market in St. Louis, Missouri and I knew it would not be the last time. And so I re-visited it after a few years.

Soulard Market is still impressive to me. It has a very nice, quite original choice of products, catering for needs of all types of communities. The meat comes from all kinds of animals, incl. frogs, the vegetables appear in all their shapes and colours, there is nuts I have not seen elsewhere like whole black walnuts, which are really hard to crack, there is a great spice shop, of course there are also cheeses, even raw milk ones, and seafood is available (sea is quite far). But there is also funny popcorn, donuts etc. Not everything is regional, but everything is interesting and mostly of good quality.

And the crowd visiting the market seems to be as the market itself: rather unpretentious, not flashy, and with very diverse backgrounds, kind of little melting pot. Often people are coming with trolleys to carry their purchases, as it seems to be affordable for everyone unlike on some farmers markets.

Apparently a lot of vendors remain the same as the market has not changed much over the years. It has resisted any potential gentrification as described e.g. for Boston. Yes I missed the vendor of the hot sauces. The Goose Poop (a relish) stand was new to me and showed clearly attempts to create an own brand, rather unusual for this market. There was a new food stand as well, probably the one & only which might be close to be called hipster. They sold nice spring rolls, wraps and alike, ginger salad and more (how does that fit with Dr. Pepper, guys?). But otherwise? …

There seemed to be no substantial change. Is this good? Well, people seem to like it, the flow of visitors never stopped despite the hot humid summer. It is also nice to see some things become a tradition, having own roots and may be called something like home. Despite the lack of change, I have not observed complacency.

I am really curious about the times to come and how new generations of visitors and vendors will shape the market or how the master plan of the city of St. Louis will be put into action (or has it already been put into action?).

All in all: Soulard Market remains one of my favorite ones for its wide diversity in products and visitors, for its down to earth approach, and maybe for the stubbornness to remain as it is.

A little link list

• The official website – kind of …
• The one of the Historic Soulard Market Merchants Association Official Website soulardmarketstl.com
• On facebook
• On Twitter
• Soulard market on the St. Louis city site
• Master plan of the city of St. Louis concerning the market
• An interesting perspective on the development of the Boston Public Market and its impact on gentrification – from untappedcities.com
• A nice video presenting the market from Phil Stephenson

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