To Market, to Market

01 Jan 2012

Robyn Eckhardt

Robyn Eckhardt writes on food and travel for publications like the New York Times, Saveur and Travel + Leisure Southeast Asia. She also chronicles street foods and culinary traditions in Asia and Turkey on her award-winning food blog EatingAsia.

 

As someone who travels to eat I make it a point, wherever I find myself, to check out the morning market. I know of no better way – especially if I’m somewhere unfamiliar – to culinarily orient myself to my chosen destination.

A slow, watchful wander through a market shows me what’s on the tables of my temporary home. It tells me which ingredients are common and cheap (limes in Saigon, heaps of spinach in Kuala Lumpur) and which are rare or dear (the single basket of foraged chanterelle mushrooms in northern Thailand, the pricey fresh hazelnuts in eastern Turkey). Markets alert me to seasons. In October, at a weekly market in Gerze, a fishing town along the Turkish side of the Black Sea, I watched customers descend upon a stall displaying anchovies as if they were starving; I learned later it was the first day of the annual catch. At a daily market in Hanoi sometime in August, clumps of buyers haggled hard with women selling longans (a fruit commonly found in South-east Asia) from baskets on the backs of their bicycles. I followed suit (well, maybe without the haggling) and walked away with an inexpensive bag of fruit at the height of its deliciousness.

I make it a habit to learn, often with the help of the staff at the hotel or guest house, a few choice phrases in the local language before heading off to market: “What do you call this? Where can I eat it?” and “Will you write it down for me?” Clued into the names of obscure ingredients and local specialities that rarely make it into guidebooks, I’m thus equipped to pursue the best of the local cuisine well off the tourist-eaten track.

After I’m through strolling, observing and asking questions, it’s time for sustenance. Happily, most markets come with an unpretentious food court or a few standalone shops where I can breakfast as locals do. I’ve drunk some of the best coffee and tea and eaten some of the best morning meals of my life at markets. I can’t imagine a better way to wake up, and a more certain way to start the day well fed, when I’m on the road.

Here are a few of my favourites:

At the Cumartesi Pazar (Saturday market) in Istanbul’s Besiktas district you’ll find products from all over Turkey: fresh sheep’s cheese made in provinces along the Aegean, red pepper and walnut paste from Tokat and dried fruit “leather” from Amasya, near the Black Sea. When hunger hits, head to the upper level for freshly griddled gozleme, which are giant pancakes with fillings like cheese and spinach.

Penangites complain about the prices at Pulau Tikus Market in the north-west part of Georgetown, Malaysia, but the high quality of its fresh ingredients can’t be denied. After you’ve finished marketing, head to the food court for local specialities like prawn noodles, char kway teow (pan-fried flat rice noodles) and Nonya (Straits Chinese) delicacies such as kueh, sweet and savoury treats typically made with coconut milk and glutinous rice flour.

Hanoi’s Chau Long Market at Ba Dinh is just the right size – small enough to be easily navigable, yet large enough to showcase all that makes northern Vietnamese fare so memorable. Tiny shops on the narrow lane to the right of its entrance serve up hearty noodles like banh da ca, wide caramel-coloured rice noodles made with green tea, served with chunks of deep-fried white fish in a tomato and pork broth brightened with fresh dill.

At the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market in New Mexico, look for gorgeous organic greens, locally made cheeses, terrific baked goods and – of course – whole and fresh as well as ground dried chillies.

• Life Forms in a Museum
• Across the Yangtze and Into Spring
• 5 Must-Have Items for the Savvy Traveller
• Following the Yellow River
• My Hotel Must-Haves