I don't know what comes to your mind when you hear the words "public market". I think of Saturday mornings with my mother at our local palengke, an open-air market with stalls after stalls of fresh fruit and vegetables, dried fish and sacks of dried corn and rice, meat and fish being butchered and dressed right before your eyes. I remember one time, a man strolled up behind me with an entire slaughtered pig across his shoulders. Definitely not a place for the faint of heart or weak of stomach.
In contrast, the Market at Granville Island seems a pretty tame affair at first. I remember visiting it for the first time, and being astonished at how clean it all was.
It's an indoor market with an outdoor feel. Here are mounds of fruit and veggies, jewel-bright; gourmet butchers; bakers and patisseries. It's definitely a feast for the eyes, and offers artisan goods and ready to eat food in addition to grocery items.
It's open year-round, and winter and spring are great times to visit it, before it gets taken over by summer crowds.
Enjoy a bowl of hot, flavourful soup from the Stock Market - or hearty oatmeal, if you are there for breakfast. Lee's Donuts are freshly made every day in the traditional, time-honoured (read: deep-fried) manner.
While my friend and I were having dinner there yesterday, we were intrigued by a couple of people walking by with tall, white bowls covered by a dome of puffy pastry. What could be in those bowls? Soup? Stew? Chicken pot pie?
We'll have to make it a point to find out, next time we go.
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