Mercado Lucas de Galvéz

An overwhelming number of smells, colors, and sounds hit you when you start getting close to Mercado Lucas de Galvéz. The streets around the market are packed with stands piled high with fruits, veggies, tacos, agua fresca, candy, and inside it's a more densely packed extreme. Locals bustle by, bags full, dodging each other, weaving in and out of the covered market and hectic streets. Follow them to find out where to get the best of everything, from limes to tortas to spice mixes.

We visited the market every day when we were in Mérida. It took a couple of visits to not be totally overwhelmed and unable to make a decision beyond "dos tacos por favor", to get my Spanish in good enough shape to talk to the pineapple-genius about which pineapple I wanted, and to figure out when we'd be hungry enough to actually cook a meal in our Airbnb, rather than eating from every taco stand we passed. Eventually we managed a "proper shop", and dinner that night was a triumph of homemade tacos, fresh margaritas, and leftovers for breakfast.

Mercado Lucas de Galvéz, Calle 65A, Centro, 97000, Mérida, Yuc., Mexico

P.S. For more of a glimpse into this amazing place, watch Samin Nosrat's acid episode on her Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat show on Netflix. You miss out on the smells, the noise, and the sense of overwhelm, but you get a sense for just how beautiful all the produce is, and understand why buying citrus fruits  in New York is now incredibly underwhelming.

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Late October at Union Square Greenmarket

Fall is at its peak this week in New York. The leaves on the trees are a stunning array of reds, oranges, browns and greens. My morning run more often than not finds me in Prospect Park: watching the golden sun rise over the tops of the autumnal trees, with a blustering reflection in the wide open lake is the best way to start the day.

The colours at the market perfectly match those of the trees. Apples feature on almost every stall in shades of bright greens and deep reds. Some are perfect for snacking on the way home, while others are huge and are begging to be cooked into a crumble on a cold, quiet evening. All other fruits have been abandoned from my current diet as I eat as many apples as I can while they're still fresh, crunchy and totally irresistible. 

And with the apples comes apple cider. And with apple cider comes the dangerously tempting apple cider doughnuts. Sugary, cinnamon-y, fluffy ring doughnuts which involve a lot of lip licking: the measure of any good doughnut. An American friend kindly explained to us the conundrum of American cider one recent evening. Cider on this side of the pond is not necessarily alcoholic. Although it can be, 'cider' is also used to describe any apple juice that isn't completely clear. So apple juice is only really used to describe rubbish-y concentrated apple juice, and cider is used for everything else. This causes quite some confusion and means everyone is always asking whether this hot cider is alcoholic or not, which could easily be solved by using the words the British way (where, for you US-readers, cider is only used when it's alcoholic), but I'm not sure I'm going to be able to change the American language that easily on my own... 

Squash, pumpkins and gourds are causing much excitement amongst kids, cooks and shoppers. The little ones run around selecting which pumpkin they need to carve for Halloween. They're making important decisions about whether this is definitely the best pumpkin on the whole market, for fear that someone else in their class may have a pumpkin that will outdo their choice. Decorative gourds bring pops of bright colour and vivid patterns to our apartment, as do the various squash we've been trying all month. This week we'll be eating several Delicata squash which are so prettily, perfectly striped that I'm struggling to convince myself to cut them up and pop them in the oven.

Carrots and beets add to the shades of orange and deep red. Their green tops are not to be wasted and are blended into various pestos as we work towards a waste-free world.

Beans, greens, onions and potatoes make up the rest of the October market colour palette. I must go and do some research on the various bean varieties so I can be sure to buy many, many more of them later this week. These pink speckled Cranberry beans are too adorable to be passed by any longer.

I have to give a special mention to The River Garden who were filling Union Square with the most fragrant smells this Monday morning. Thankfully, they have promised me they'll be there until Christmas so I have plenty of time to select a dried flower wreath for my door, to buy dried chillies to hang in the kitchen, and to fill my bedroom with the smells of eucalyptus and lavender throughout the coming winter months.

Union Square Greenmarket, East 14th Street, Park Avenue South & Broadway, New York, NY 10003

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Early October at Union Square Greenmarket

Fall has arrived in New York: the days are shorter, the air is cooler, there's a breeze blowing in the trees, and gradually, gradually, the leaves are changing colour. With this change in season, comes a change in the food I crave. Suddenly making a soup or roasting something in the oven has become an attractive thought, and apple crumble has made its way back onto the dining table every weekend.

The Farmers' markets are one day sheltering from wind and rain and the next day basking in the warm sunlight. The produce is slowly becoming more and more autumnal, but hints of a glorious summer which has come to an end are still visible in small heaps and piles if you search for them.

Squash and pumpkins in all shapes and sizes are the centerpiece of the October market. There's butternut squash and acorn squash, the less tasty spaghetti squash, and stripy ones and long bendy ones I don't know the name of. There are also pumpkins which are perfect for carving, which I will do as soon as I embrace this American obsession with Halloween (I'm still rather wary at the moment), as well as gorgeous striped, bumpy decorative gourds which will soon be replacing the wild flowers as the go-to apartment decoration.

The stalls that aren't squash-centered are covered in crates of apples and pears. I can't explain how happy apple season makes me. My poor shoulders which have to haul all the kilograms of apples home after every market trip would probably tell a different story. No scented candle will ever come close to smelling as heavenly as apples cooking on the stove, simmering away in butter and a sprinkling of brown sugar. 

The concord grapes smell sweet and look like beautiful little gems nestled in their turquoise punnet. I'm too lazy to bother with deseeding them and all the other fiddly bits that goes with cooking them, but I still pause to think about it for a little while, and admire the others who do pick up a punnet to go home and wrestle with in their own kitchen.

Bunches of greens of all varieties attract the kale enthusiasts from far and wide. Leafy, crunchy, and tied up in huge bunches; kale, cavolo nero, broccoli rabe, spinach, and collard greens are on rotation at our little dining table this week.

You have to be fast to grab a punnet of the last of the tomatoes. Juicy and almost overripe, these beautiful heirlooms are dragging their feet into Autumn, unwilling to leave the market for another year.

Garlic has also begun to show its face in the last couple of days. You can smell it from the the stand next door: sweet and strong. The bulbs sit next to the greens, their proximity forcing you to remember how fabulous these two things will taste when tossed together for a couple of minutes with a dash of olive oil. 

And last but not least, the potatoes are here. All colours, shapes and sizes have made an abrupt entrance. The weather needs to turn cooler soon so there's enough of an excuse to roast, bake, boil, mash, and steam all of them, always with a lot of butter and just enough salt. Thinking about it has got my tummy rumbling already. 

This weekend will be filled with potatoes, cavolo nero, a few squidgy tomatoes, pumpkins, and lots of apples. I couldn't be more excited.

Union Square Greenmarket, East 14th Street, Park Avenue South & Broadway, New York, NY 10003

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Mid-September at Union Square Greenmarket

While Autumn seems to be in full swing back home in chilly England (I can confirm this having spoken to my family earlier this week who were all wrapped up in scarves and wooly jumpers), Fall is only very slowly, very subtly, beginning to show his face round here.

I missed the Farmers' Market last week as we flew back to the UK for a far too brief family weekend. Returning to Union Square Greenmarket this week, change was in the air. Pumpkins and gourds had started to appear, but iced tea, peaches and sunflowers were also still there.

The last of the corn was heaped on the tables as before, but each cob is so much smaller: they'd almost halved in size. I couldn't resist just one more corn salad so walked away with 5 ears of corn to make a much more minimal supper than this would have previously provided.

Tomatoes are still laid out on the tables, but they don't dominate every stall as they did a fortnight ago. They're fading away to make room for the autumnal veggies, but I find the colourful, bright and juicy heirloom selections to be completely irresistible while they're still there. I just had to make sure I was there early enough that I didn't miss out.

White peaches remain piled high, but they now find themselves with a new neighbour: the first of the season's apples. Seeing, smelling and tasting these crunchy, crisp apples had me smiling like a cheshire cat: I won't be too sad to watch the peaches fade away if all the space they occupied will be filled with these local, unusual, organic apples.

I was weighed down on my journey back home, carefully protecting the dahlias I'd bought on a last moment whim: they were too much to resist.

This shop became:

Salted Caramel Apple Pie

Peaches and plums decorated our breakfast bircher muesli

Tomatoes were sliced and drizzled with olive oil, crushed garlic and torn basil leaves.

Vaghareli Makai

... And the dahlias are decorating B's desk

Union Square Greenmarket, East 14th Street, Park Avenue South & Broadway, New York, NY 10003

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Union Square Greenmarket

Every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday of the year, a beautiful farmers' market appears in Union Square. The market first took place in 1976 and it hasn't stopped growing since then. Today up to 140 farmers, fishers, bakers, florists come here every week to sell their finest regional produce.

There's a weekly theme to the market, which is highlighted in the cooking demos and at the education stations that are dotted around the square: in the short time that we've been living in this city we've seen the focus be on corn, on various nearby regions, and on tomatoes. A weekly visit to the market highlights the seasons' gradual changes as the fruit and the vegetables slowly and subtly change on each and every stand. I fear that soon will be the end of the season where 5 ears of corn are $2, and when the punnets of beautiful heirloom tomatoes are $5. 

Rare, local, and stunning varieties of produce appear in gluts on the market stands. And they often seem to have the most wonderful names too, although I have two clear favorites: kermit eggplant and fairytale eggplant. Irresistible.

Union Square Greenmarket, East 14th Street, Park Avenue South & Broadway, New York, NY 10003

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Borough Market: Bread Ahead

It had been far too long since I had last been to Borough Market. Over a year. The last time was a beautiful sunny Saturday morning and the crowds got to me. I got stressed, couldn't move, queued for a Monmouth Coffee (yes, that queue was worth it), and then left.

It was the hundreds of rave reviews of the doughnuts at Bread Ahead that got me there again this morning.

B, T and I traipsed down in the pouring rain to find an enjoyably empty (given that it was a bank holiday Saturday in May) market. I mean, it wasn't empty. It's not like we had the whole place to ourselves (which would I think be my heaven). But we could move around at a reasonable pace. We didn't have to queue to buy things. I didn't feel like a hamster trapped in a wheel.

B was not going to let us admire anything, taste anything or buy anything, until we had sourced our doughnuts. So round and round we walked, until we finally found it. Bread Ahead's stand, piled high with sourdough, brownies, focaccia, cakes, and, of course, trays of doughnuts. One vanilla custard doughnut each and a loaf of sourdough purchased. Excitement all round, followed by many repetitions of 'so good', 'so fluffy', 'mmmmmm', all said with sugar and custard all over our faces. We contemplated a second, went back and gazed at the remainder of the tray lovingly, before deciding we'd do a market lap and come back later. 

We sipped on juices as we walked (juice + doughnut = healthy meal), picking at samples, grabbing vegetables for dinner, escaping the not-too-bad crowds to the comparative calm of Neal's Yard to buy ricotta and a bank-holiday weekend dose of Dorstone, before returning to Bread Ahead for an aubergine focaccia and an olive and cheese stick (T just couldn't resist those crispy bits of cheese hanging off the side any longer).

I think I could now put up with the heaving crowds of a sunny Saturday lunchtime if I knew one of those doughnuts was waiting for me. But if they'd sold out already, well, I think I'd break down and cry. I'd be heartbroken and have to go for some inferior treat elsewhere.

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