Scroll to the end for the map to find Albert Cuyp market

The Saturday weather was great, so the ice cream guy at the market was almost sold out but I was still lucky. And the refreshment was needed. The Albert Cuyp street with the market of the same name is very, very long. And lively. And huge. It is not a gourmet, hipster, vegan or organic market. Lots of non-food items like clothes and electronics are available. But of course I am focusing on the food part of this more than 100 year old market.

Some bloggers like “that food cray” and “ginger girl” took their time to check on the street food like stroopwafels, a thin waffle with caramel syrup, or pickled herring. I was rather strolling around to see what I could buy for cooking at home if I would live in Amsterdam.

So there is plenty of fresh fish, smoked fish and seafood. Basically I have never seen a Dutch market without lots of fish and it is often served on the spot fried in a batter with some kind of tartar sauce. Strangely enough I did not spot much cheese.

What is not to be missed on a Dutch market are the stalls with dried or candied fruit and nuts, I have no idea where this preference is coming from. Obviously there are fruit and vegetable stalls as well with a standard offering.

All the produce stalls were squattered along this street resulting in a pleasant exercise to see them all.

Even though the market is much advertised, it is not one where I would go for to find delicacies, but certainly for the daily produce it is good enough. But the vibe of the market is really great and makes a visit worthwhile. People of all kinds are strolling along worth to be watched when you are a curious person. The traders with their rather rough expression give it an authentic feel, and as it is not far from the more touristic parts one gets a touch of “real” Amsterdam. And if there is a need for a rest, all along this street there are cafés, restaurants etc. Do that only after having tried a smoothie at one of the booths.

All in all: A very lively market and a good opportunity to discover “real” Amsterdam off the beaten path

A little link list:

• The market homepage
• Description of the market by the Dutch market directory
• The Albert Cuyp Market on Wikipedia
• The market on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram
• 5 things to eat at the market by “that food cray“
• Ginger Girl Says has her view on what to eat
• A list of markets in Amsterdam published by the city
• A post with pictures from Wanderblogger
• My other posts of Dutch markets

The post Popular – Albert Cuyp Market, Amsterdam / Netherlands 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.

A market can be full of stories. This one delivered many.

Intro

Schlebusch is a neighbourhood in Leverkusen, a city close to Cologne, which is not known for being a touristic attraction. You will probably travel there only if you are fan of the successful soccer club Bayer 04 Leverkusen or the even more famous company Bayer AG.

The market itself is in a residential neighbourhood and not the only one in town. It might have a few dozen stalls or so. It has all the stalls necessary for daily needs: fruits and veggies, lots of meat, fish, cheese, eggs, honey and the like.

The customers all looked like they were coming from all directions of the neighbourhood, most of them seemed to bring their own bags saving plastic in the city with this famous chemical company (Bayer AG).

The little stories

Talking to strangers is rewarding.

The butcher

The butcher I talked to, serves the market since 35 years. He won’t have somebody taking up his business when he retires in the near future. It is just hard work, starting very early in the morning – not appealing to many. And business is not easy. He had a pre-ordered Barbary duck from France but the buyer failed to show up. Selling it for 25€ instead of 35€ was still a hard task.

80 to 90% of his clientele are regular ones. They mainly come because of the better quality and a wider choice in comparison to supermarkets. There was boar and deer in the offering, not for much longer as the the hunting season was ending. He has rabbit all year long, in the past this was also only a seasonal product. Rabbit has its fans, I am wondering how people learned to appreciate it, as it is not widespread in German cuisine. He could pinpoint to a certain category of people buying it.

German markets are in decline rather than on the rise, he stated, and a solution on how to change this did not come up. For sure social media as a tool to attract a new clientele was not his worry. This always puzzles me a bit, as I see US & UK markets being active in this field.

The vegetable seller

He had a cold and was not in the most talkative mood. But at least he allowed me to take some pictures. And he told me that truly the demand for sweet potatoes, US import in this case, was on the rise, even though there a certainly not as common as the good old potato.

The fish ladies

The fish ladies had a much clearer opinion on how to make the market more attractive: shift the operations to a later hour when young families have already done their breakfast and are ready to go on a Saturday. And offer them also some street food as they enjoy eating something different but on a budget.

The fish ladies knew their customers and have seen some of them getting old, suffering from dementia and even dying. They see themselves not only as business persons but also as companions of their customers. They enjoy this a lot, even though the stories were not always jolly.

For one story they pitied me because I had no chance to see it on this day: every Saturday there was these two big dogs waiting at the entrance area of the market on their own, while their “master” was doing shopping. They sit here, do not move, watch the scenery and do not bother anybody. A pleasure to everybody.

When I wanted to take pictures of the merchandise, the ladies first made sure that everything looked pretty. I was not used to it, but the wait was worth it – check the pictures in the gallery above with a large choice of smoked fish: kipper, mackerel, eel, halibut, herring and more.

The Sorb lady

While I was discussing with the fish ladies on how to get a younger crowd to the market, an old lady approached me. She first told me that the younger preferred the organic farmer’s market not so far away. She had a bad experience there: money was stolen from her purse once. Therefore she does not go there anymore.

And then she told me a bit about her own history: she is a Sorb or how she preferred to call it: a Wend. I tend to forget about this centuries old Slavic speaking population in Eastern Germany. It turned out to be more than a recap. I learned about the complicated times during the Nazi regime, where efforts were made to teach the Sorbs/Wends to speak the German language only. Apparently they got teachers even from the Alsace region, whereas the Sorb ones had to got in other areas. She continued with a few other stories about frictions between different cultures in Germany and that led her to believe that tolerance was a necessity in life.

The epilogue

I made a few purchases: smoked fish and some Gouda with cep, both very nice. But what I will remember most are the chats I had during the short visit with all the locals.

All in all: A nice neighbourhood market, which is just missing a little spot where people sip a coffee and exchange their stories

A little link list:

• Overview on the markets in Leverkusen, incl. Schlebusch – German but easy to translate
• There does not seem to be a lot on the Internet on this market

The post Outdoor market in Schlebusch, Leverkusen / Germany appeared first on Food & Farmers' Markets.

The Holešovice market in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic is basically a large area covered by different halls. The hall 22 is the one we are looking for, as it is the one which is the closest to a farmers’ market. The other halls contain partly shops, flea markets and basically all sorts of stuff you might need or not in your daily life.

When I entered hall 22 at in the later afternoon, it was fairly empty, some stalls were already closed. Still enough to get an impression. The hall in itself is fairly large, quite larger than e.g. the Eastern Market in Washington DC. What is there to be found: vegetables of all sorts in rather large quantities if we add up all the stands. Fruit as well. Flowers, herbs were also available. But there was not so much meat, fish or cheese stands. Most of the produce seem to come from the Czech Republic, but I also saw produce from other Eastern European countries.

There were a few things which caught my eyes: the tons of banners across the hall, the one stand which sold whole sunflower seed heads, and a stand which had really nice looking dried sausages in really dark colors. I still do not know why I did not buy some. Maybe because the market was not very lively at the time, I did not feel so much the urge to buy something, despite the friendly sausage vendor.

All in all: Caters for daily life with a large selection of goods in a rather unusual setting.

A little link list:

• The official website of the market – here the English version
• Brief description on markets in Prague and how to get there from prague.tv
• A post on the market including its history from expats.cz
• A nice post on the rise of the Czech farmers’ markets by Radio Prague

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The Siegburg market is a rather small one, which is not a surprise as the city in itself is not large. Siegburg, not being far away from Cologne, is famous for its medieval Christmas market and attracts quite some crowds.

But let’s come to the basics. The market is located in the heart of the historic city, surrounded by cafés and shops. It has a strong focus on daily needs like vegetables, fruit etc. And it focuses on quality rather than on quantity. Butchers are there as well, even a maker and dealer of smoked fish.

But the highlight of the market, an absolute must see is the cheese stand at the far end. It will be difficult to find a better one in any market, even in France, when it comes to the wide range of artisan cheeses. The focus is certainly France, but cheeses from Germany, Austria, UK etc. are available as well. The stand is supposed to have around 300 different varieties, including not so common ones like the Boulette d’Avesnes. Take the time to queue, you will be rewarded by Mr. Nostheide with the right attention, samples and good advice.

The market is nice with an absolute highlight/must see: the cheese stand of Mr. Nostheide.

A little link list:

• Official market information (German)
• Nice background information of the individual stands (German)
• Medieval Christmas market of Siegburg

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