http://www.marketmanila.com A food blog that talks about food, produce, recipes, ingredients, restaurants and markets here in the Philippines and around the globe. Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:41:25 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 en hourly 1 http://www.marketmanila.com/archives/reserve-a-fresh-christmas-tree-at-sr-now http://www.marketmanila.com/archives/reserve-a-fresh-christmas-tree-at-sr-now#comments Sat, 31 Oct 2009 07:40:27 +0000 Marketman http://www.marketmanila.com/?p=9167 A Christmas Tree Farm near the Canadian border... I knew there was a good reason to take these snapshots of these rows and rows of pine trees last Spring when we were in New Hampshire and took time to visit a maple syrup farm, here. For the past few years, we have been fortunate enough to get a live douglas fir Christmas tree from S&R, and it is always a joy when it enters our home and quickly perfumes the living room with that quintessential holiday fragrance of pine. My sisters in New York always get gorgeous, floor to ceilling fresh Christmas trees (blue spruce are spectacular) each holiday season, see this tree from Christmas 2007. Last year we had this bushy specimen. We even managed to see the tree not only come out of hibernation, but grow a few needles as well! Here is another previous post, with tips on how to care for your fresh tree and prolong its life.]]> http://www.marketmanila.com/archives/reserve-a-fresh-christmas-tree-at-sr-now/feed 16 http://www.marketmanila.com/archives/halloween-pumpkins-gourds http://www.marketmanila.com/archives/halloween-pumpkins-gourds#comments Mon, 26 Oct 2009 06:36:00 +0000 Marketman http://www.marketmanila.com/?p=9004 The slow but steady swell of a proverbial tidal wave of holiday activity has started in earnest at the Marketman & Family household. We have traditionally made a big deal out of Halloween, what with a kid in the house for these past 13+ years... Her first costume was the cutest ever Winnie-the-pooh in a terry like fuzzy fabric, made by a tita of hers, and she waddled around the block complete with pampers that made her rear end look like that of a well-fed/stuffed bear. Her costume choices since then have obviously evolved and become more sophisticated, but now it isn't about the costume, just about hanging around with friends, I suppose. She'll still get a ton of candy I suspect, but it probably isn't too cool to admit that at her age... :) After Halloween comes Thanksgiving, holiday parties, dinners, etc. and of course Christmas, an absolute family favorite.]]> http://www.marketmanila.com/archives/halloween-pumpkins-gourds/feed 20 http://www.marketmanila.com/archives/the-press-comes-for-lunch-part-i http://www.marketmanila.com/archives/the-press-comes-for-lunch-part-i#comments Fri, 16 Oct 2009 13:45:43 +0000 Marketman http://www.marketmanila.com/?p=8843 I must say a huge thank you to readers and friends of marketmanila.com, for doing such an incredible job of letting their friends and even the press know about Zubuchon, the retail lechon experiment of the crew in Cebu. Apparently, one of marketmanila's regular readers has sent several kilos of the lechon to friends, amongst them writers for local Cebu papers, and that resulted in a nearly HALF PAGE feature (with color photo) in the Cebu Daily News last Tuesday! Written by Jude A. Bacalso, she very generously described the lechon as a "crackling, lemongrassy success" and went further to say "those in the know whisper conspiratorially about (the lechon), and line up patiently for" only some of the two lechons that are sold each Sunday. I happened to be at the Cebu office last Tuesday, and the phones started ringing off the hook, with folks wondering where to buy the lechon if it wasn't a Sunday... and only later did we realize there was a mention in the local paper! The crew were thrilled. It doesn't get better than this for a four week old venture...]]> http://www.marketmanila.com/archives/the-press-comes-for-lunch-part-i/feed 67 http://www.marketmanila.com/archives/late-summer-album-union-square-market-part-i http://www.marketmanila.com/archives/late-summer-album-union-square-market-part-i#comments Tue, 29 Sep 2009 06:53:18 +0000 Marketman http://www.marketmanila.com/?p=8429 The Union Square market in Manhattan recently celebrated its 20th anniversary, and I realized that I have been visiting the market for just as long! I used to live and work in New York in the late 1980's and I would take the subway down to the market, load up on goodies and have a few friends over for a weekend dinner party. After moving away from the city, I would return for visits to family once or twice a year, and many of those trips included a trip to the market. But in the past ten years or so, I had never managed a trip to NY in August/September, and hence always missed the market when it was bursting with the last of the summer's produce and bounty. And what an incredibly lush, colorful, robust, intense, colorful bounty it is! I had so many wonderful photos that I decided to break them into several posts. Up top, pails of vibrantly hued dahlias, in fall shades of burgundy, magenta, orange, pinks, etc.]]> http://www.marketmanila.com/archives/late-summer-album-union-square-market-part-i/feed 18 http://www.marketmanila.com/archives/a-775-pound-pumpkin http://www.marketmanila.com/archives/a-775-pound-pumpkin#comments Mon, 28 Sep 2009 00:56:37 +0000 Marketman http://www.marketmanila.com/?p=8316 The Autumn or Fall Season was always my favorite time of year when I lived in temperate regions. The spectacular hues of turning leaves, the crisp evening and early morning air, the abundant produce at the end of Summer, and the promise of several wonderful holidays ahead always put me in a seriously good mood. First there was Halloween (terrific if you have kids, and going around in thick costumes in cool weather made more sense, not to mention the sweets!), then Thanksgiving - the ultimate foodie holiday, then of course Christmas and New Year's which is always FANTASTIC... So you can imagine my glee when I spotted this monstrous pumpkin while driving by a New England nursery last week!!!]]> http://www.marketmanila.com/archives/a-775-pound-pumpkin/feed 13