Sister had invited some 50 guests to her Thanksgiving dinner. This is not a recommended number for anyone who wants to sleep easy the night before the meal… :) While she had rented a nice nearby hall to hold the event in, she was cooking everything herself and from scratch. Yipes. I went to the Union Square Market with her the day before Thanksgiving and I have to say, I never thought we could manage 150+ pounds of produce and flowers between us, but we did. And there was no crew, no car, and it was during the Thanksgiving rush…

I managed to snap a few shots of what was on offer in the market at this time of year (I have featured posts on Union Square Market in the Spring, Summer and Fall) and it is amazing how the colors of the season, and its produce, are so naturally mirrored in the clothing and other items for sale in stores at the same time… Above, the chartreuse relation of broccoli called broccoflower (a mix between broccoli and cauliflower) — turns out it is not a mix, but rather closer to a cauliflower, with a unique color and shape…

…deep reds/burgundies/purples of cabbage…

…some of the freshest and most ginormous heads of cauliflower…

…brussel sprouts…

…several types of radishes…

…and a plethora of potatoes!

Celeriac, parsnips and greens…

…and of course lots of fresh herbs for the stuffing and other side dishes!

The apple selection was still superb, and the mini-mountain of red fruit at the rear of the photo above are fresh cranberries. There were lots of pies on offer, but sister was making her own. She once one the first prize for her apple pie at the Union Square Market Apple Pie contest, so no pre-made pies for her.

Edible but beautiful cabbage plants in a variety of colors were terrific for table settings or buffet arrangements, but we opted for orange and burgundy mums instead (several dozen pots on advance order).

A little more unusual for me at least, were these wonderfully odd ornamental ears of corn, in terrific fall colors…

…and these almost jurassic looking osage oranges that are good for warding off cockroaches!

But we were there to pick up the free-range, organic turkeys of course. And when they emerged from the truck and the farmer said they were 35 pounds EACH, my jaw just about dropped…

…of course if you weren’t keen on turkey, the same provedore also had pheasant, goose, duck, et al on offer as well. For Sister’s Thanksgiving meal, we picked up oysters, clams, several types of beets, rutabaga, beans, greens, fresh herbs, fresh cider, fruit, flowers, etc. By the end of the shopping trip, I can assure you we looked a bit outrageously laden… :)

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“Bago”. Huh?! That’s the answer to my question posed in Cebuano asking what these young, vibrant green leaves were. I thought she meant they were young leaves. But apparently they were called bago, as in the type of tree. Apparently used as a slight souring agent for soups, like nilangang baka or boiled beef, these leaves are also sometimes added to vegetable dishes, or blanched and eaten with dried fish. I have NEVER seen them or come across them before. Nor did I have any idea what they were called in English or Filipino. Until I googled them and amazingly found this site that lists bago as one of the things Aetas of Morong, Bataan consume! They are considered rather nutritious, and have the tongue twister of a scientific name Gnetum gnemon Linn. Gnetaceae, I kid you not. For me, the bago leaves were one of the more unusual things on offer at the roadside produce market in Mantalongon, Barili, walking distance from the livestock auction market. I almost always stop at provincial markets if they look promising, and this one was wonderful in its simplicity. Perhaps only 20-30 vendors were there the morning we passed by, and their goods were fairly limited, but exquisitely fresh. In fact, most of the sellers grew the produce themselves or were related to the farmers.

The root crops looked really fresh, but the colors, sizes and shapes of the kamote (sweet potatoes) and other root crops were, in many ways, soothingly inconsistent.

This basket of local tomatoes looked brilliant, and were so reasonably priced, that I bought the entire basket!

Bananas, beans, okra and chillies.

A nice pile of kamansi.

Gorgeous and enormous lanzones. I assumed they must have been brought from Mamabajao, Camiguin, but it turns out they were locally grown! And the vendor was so honest, and said “they look good, but aren’t so sweet, not like the Camiguin ones”, so unfortunately, she didn’t make a sale…

Bunches and bunches of green onions, under a make-shift stall.

A lady with baskets of landang, a key ingredient for Cebuano benignit or guinataan.

I noticed this older lady packing some coconut leaf containers with rice to make some puso, but there was something unusual about the rice she was using…

…on closer inspection, it turned out she was adding a few grains of sticky purple rice to the usual white rice, making the puso slightly fragrant with tinges of purple… a little innovation to a product that is otherwise so common in these parts. We purchased a dozen of these puso and cooked them at home.

And finally, after the produce marketing, we stopped to get several dozen freshly baked bibingkas or rice cakes from roadside vendors. We were snacking on them on the drive back to Cebu city, and less than half of the bibingka them made it back to the office! Next up, an answer to the chicharon poll…

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To market, to market to buy a fat pig (or two, or three)… I don’t think I have ever been to a livestock market, and with our recent need to identify more and more sources of traditionally raised pigs for the ZUBUCHON experiment, we decided to plan a half-day trip to the Mantalongon Livestock Auction Market in Barili, Cebu. Not to be confused with the other Mantalongon market, which is predominantly a vegetable trading center roughly 2.5 hours south of Cebu, this livestock market was about 1.25 hours away, and relatively near the town chicharon town of Carcar. This post is about the trade and sale of live animals predominantly for the purpose of feeding people. If that bothers you, then simply DO NOT read the rest of this post. I will delete any comments that I deem inappropriate. Just so that’s crystal clear before you click on “read post.”

The livestock market takes place only on Thursdays, and while we arrived at about 6:30am, I think the peak of the trading action occurs around 7am or so. Livestock from near and far arrive either on tethers led on foot by owners or hired hands, or on vans, trucks and jeepneys. It’s a pretty wild sight and an open grounds area is filled with vehicles, animals, people and a whole lot of POOP. :( Chickens, goats, pigs, carabaos and cows are all up for sale, and while I sort of expected an auction style arrangement with an auctioneer selling off lots of animals, in fact it is more like a huge open market with buyers and sellers milling around the animals striking their own deals.

I spotted these three little pigs in the back of a van that seemed less stressed than other animals being brought to market in crowded vans. So I quickly started negotiations with the owner and even before they were unloaded, I had purchased one of the three pigs for a lechon lunch the next day. At roughly 15 kilos live weight, the piggie was perhaps 6 weeks old, and much smaller than the ones we usually make into lechon.

This rather huge pig, a male or “barako” snorted up alongside me while I was bargaining for the young piggie, and frankly, he was one fat papa! Many insist that male pigs, particularly older ones, have an off-flavor to their meat, so we have ONLY been purchasing female pigs for lechons. I can’t imagine what happens to all the male pigs, either they are cooked young or there a whole lot of male meat for sale in some markets… And how would one explain the treatment of wild boar (presumably males) as a delicacy and its strong flavor as desirable??? Hmmm….

With so many pigs in the field, one rapidly realizes that there are differences… some certainly look happier than others, some are heavier for their age and size, while others look like they were on a South Beach Diet. It was a bit upsetting to see so many herded into this auction area, and when they were purchased, led off to the buyers vehicle to almost certain death, if not fattening before death. But I eat meat, so I deal with that.

I’m sure if you come to the market often enough, you would figure out who seems to have the best livestock on offer. And you get to know the individuals and ask how big their piggeries are, if the pigs are raised in their back yards, among a dozen other pigs, or only 2-3 at a time. There aren’t many folks here that come from large professional piggeries… this is a market for the rural folks, with several city buyers. In many cases, ladies of all ages bring one of two young pigs to market, selling them at say 2-3 weeks, for others to fatten for a month or two. These ladies often take the proceeds of selling one or two of their piglets to the market down the road to buy rice, vegetables, canned goods, etc. that will last them until the next piglet is sold…

This market is akin to what one might call the “wild west” and outsiders are not common here. Why, after all, would a tourist from cebu venture all this way to watch thousands of kilos of porky’s change hands? But we weren’t just there as tourists, we purchased several pigs that day…

The smaller piglets are kept in pens that looked like large produce baskets. These were the cutest cleanest ones in the market.

I was rather tempted to buy one of these, not to fatten, but to cook as a true lechon de leche. But these were rather pricey for their size, and the meat cost per kilo was much more expensive than buying a 24-30 kilo pig. And admittedly, their clean, cute, faces helped to spare them from the barbecue this time around. Don’t get me wrong, I know these pigs and other livestock are raised specifically to feed humans, and for the most part, I suspect they have led much more natural lives compared to their cousins in large commercial piggeries, poultries, goateries(?) and cattle operations, but there is still that slight tinge of guilt.

From the pigs, which seemed to comprise the vast majority of livestock changing hands, I also spent some time in the goat section. Here goats seemed to sold in little herds or congregations of the beasts…

And I know most goats are fine with jumping, leaping and generally kicking around their environs, but even I was a bit surprised how they were “thrown” into a truckload filled with goats. I just took the photo to record the event, not to make a judgment call on how the goats were being treated…

There were several calves on offer, older, tougher looking cows and bulls and a smattering of carabaos… At least now I know where to go if I ever decided to try my hand at a whole roasted calf…

And I must explain the photo above. I had not planned to go to a livestock market when I went to Cebu on a business trip. The day we left for the market, I realized I only had a pair of off-white jeans (my other pants were business slacks) and had no choice but to wear them to market. But in a bit of Pigman karma, probably for having roasted so many of their relatives, and despite taking great care during the first five minutes at the market, I got POOPED on by a pig in a passing truck! YUCK is right. But that was okay, I would understand if it was intentional. It doesn’t look bad in the photo above, but a big chunk of poop dropped down into the cuff of my pant leg, and it smelled vile all the way home… :)

So what do the vendors, buyers, traders and visitors eat when they have cut their deals? Roast pig, of course. It looked great, but the skin wasn’t crisp at all… :)

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More vibrant color, more appetizing produce from a recent visit to the Union Square Market in New York. Above, a cheerful abundance of cosmos…

Garlic tinged with purple, rocambole is touted as “arguably the best garlic in the known universe”…

Most of the flowers echo the colors of Fall, purples, orange, red, magenta, fuschia, lavender, etc.

Thinner skinned, yellow green beans…

…Concord and Niagara grapes…

Large heads of yellow orange cauliflower.

The most amazing selection of tomatoes I have ever seen. So amazing, I am doing a separate post on the heirlooms and other varieties of tomatoes I saw at the market.

The last of the sunflower crop.

Only one of some six varieties of eggplants on offer!

Voluptuous mushrooms, hen of the woods, I think.

An unusual variety of cilantro or cariander… “Delfino cilantro”

Three types of basil – sweet Italian Basil, purple basil and Thai basil.

Fantastic radicchio. Fantastic market visit. :)

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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.

Gorgeous dark burgundy beets, harvested the day before were piled high next to some crisp carrots.

Over 10 different types of potatoes were on offer, from fingerlings, to purple peruvians, red potatoes, etc.

Ravishing radishes!

The most stunning variety and display of chili peppers from hot to super hot, from red to white and every orange, yellow, variant in between. Utterly beautiful.

Crate upon crate of the crispest apples.

A half-bushel of damson plums… that sister wiped out to make her annual batch of damson plum jam that is amazingly good.

Cute little crab apples.

Blackberries, raspberries, concord and niagara grapes.

Peaches, nectarines and several types of plums! I haven’t enhanced these photos in any way. And it was an overcast gloomy morning. And yet the colors are just so stunning. It was so energizing to be in the midst of this market, and I can only compare it to a “visual drug” for those pre-occupied with produce! There’s nothing like the bounty of late Summer in a temperate region’s produce markets…these photos seem to confirm that!

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Its external surroundings and signage belie the gem within. Note the great tag line on their signage that states “very pleasant shopping place…” While I wouldn’t go that far, it is a relatively clean market inside with very fresh seafood and a high turnover at peak hours. Small and compact at probably less than 1000 square meters, the market has just four or five aisles packed with all of the best seafood available from near and far. On a recent weekday visit at 8:30 am, there were live spiny lobsters, groupers, 8 grades of prawns, tons of crab, sashimi quality tuna, jacks, sole, etc. and most looked extremely fresh. Prices were high but at 10-20% more than other markets I thought it was well worth it given the breadth and depth of selection. Live spiny lobsters at P1,400 a kilo (P800 for newly deceased), crabs at P280-350 a kilo, prawns at P350-650 a kilo, grouper (lapu-lapu) at P300 a kilo might give some a head rush but just think what restaurants charge for the same thing…

After talking to some of the stall owners, they let on that while coming to the market early (as I usually do, crack of dawn in fact) is good for seafood sourced close to Manila (delivered over land), it was also good to come later in the morning at around 10-11am to see what the planes from the South have brought with them. Apparently a lot of seafood is sent by airfreight from Mindanao, Negros and Capiz among other sources. A few weeks later I went to the market at 1030am and it was bustling and the selection was superb.

Seaside Mart is located on Roxas Boulevard near the Baclaran Redemptorist Church. On a good day it is just 15 minutes from makati. Take EDSA to Tramo and then right on Andrews Ave (Airport Road) then go straight to Roxas Boulevard. Turn right and stay on the service road, drive about 400 meters and stop at the Seaside Mart signs. Fruit vendors out front, seafood inside. If you hit the Baclaran church, you have gone too far. Parking is limited and the area just a bit on the seedy side so bring a driver if you can. I love this market and have returned frequently since my first visit.

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