Pancho Villa Farmer's Market - North Park

I was taken to a place. The hall of the Chili king, I stood high upon the mountain, In front of, Every kind of chili. They're was tall ones, green ones, red ones black ones, short ones...........crazy ones. Out of the middle came a lady, she whispered in my ear something crazy..she said.............."Hey! why are you taking pictures of chili's?" And that is when the music died in my head. OK. A good friend of the kitchen told me about this place and that I had to check it out. I had been having trouble finding some esoteric Mexican spices like Epazote and Hoja Santa and Guaje seeds.

Pancho Villa Farmers Market on El Cajon Blvd he told me was the place to find them. So I strolled in one day and to my amazement and unlike U2. I had found what I was looking for. All of the chili's and spices I could ever dream of. This place is large and clean and has just about everything you could want.

As I walked through the produce section. There where stacks of chili's, every kind from Habanero to Anaheim and Manzano to Pasilla. Very nice selection and all piled high and fresh.

All of the produce looked great. This is my favorite Hispanic market. Worth the drive.

Chow

Michael

La Mesa Farmers Market

Every Friday from 3:00PM - 6:00PM you can
stroll through the various vendors of whole food products. This little outdoor market has been growing in popularity and increasing in size since it began a few years ago. All of the agricultural vendors are certified organic and all are from local family farms around San Diego. You can find great little gems here that are very hard to find anywhere else and even if you did, it would cost you an arm and a leg. Here, only a leg. I usually stroll through for the heirloom tomatoes a farm in Vista grows and a baguette from the Bread & Cie table. The Heirloom tomato's are by far the best tasting tomato anywhere and I would bet my can of San Marzano's on them being, well, better than the stuff from San Marzano. Just really fresh and bursting with flavor. Check these pictures out of a box of heirlooms. Ugly little buggers, but they make up for it with there taste and texture. Firm and smooth, not to much acid and not as strong in flavor as a San Marzano. Kinda medium taste and a little tart. I love them.
Little ugly pumpkin looking tomatoes. But worth seeking out. You can find everything here from Thai chili plants to flowers. Lots of flowers.Olive Oil from Temecula. And tons of fresh seasonal locally grown fruits and vegetables. The selection is always at it's peek when I go to the market. Here are a few more picks of the pickings.Let's hope that the city of La Mesa doesn't ruin this great little farmers market like they did with the Oktoberfest that is held here every year. They took a German beer drinking festival and turned it into a craft fair. Lot's of crochet pot holders and tie dye, but very little lederhosen. Not to crowded yet and a nice European feel to it, And by the way, after strolling through the market you can always go across the street and have a bite at All' Italiana or maybe a brew at that classic little and I mean little dive bar, Joe & Andy's.

Fresh picked peppers and unusual zucchini, some large

And some baby ones with blossoms still attached. I brought some of these back to the foodopolis test kitchen and they were outstanding. So skip out of work early next Friday and stroll through the La Mesa Village. You know some times it ain't so bad having your office in East County. You just have to know where to look for the cool stuff.

La Mesa Farmers Market

Every Friday from 3pm-6pm

Chow

Michael

Portland Saturday Market - Portland OR

The market is open on Saturdays an definitely a must visit if you ever find yourself in the"Rose City" on a weekend with some time to spare. I love Portland, Great restaurants that get almost no publicity, I guess because of it's proximity to Vancouver. And Portland is quickly becoming the beer capital of the west. Tons of micro breweries that crank out fantastic beers. Here are a few photos from this event. Live music playing, arts and crafts and of course food galore. Although there was quite a variety of food to be found. We didn't come across one that really stood out as being something great. Having said that though, The food, plus the music, beer and people, more than made up for anything. Here is a classic example of the attitude of the people of Portland. I was of course wondering around snapping pictures of food and people like the David Hemmings character from that classic Michelangelo Antonioni film Blow-Up when I ran across a booth serving Thai food. I snapped a picture of man working feverishly over a flaming wok and the guy said, "Hey, you have to take one now with me and my wife" so I did, and the he says "Hey, now you have to take one with me and my wife and my mother" and so I did. Everyone has just a great attitude here.

The Street fair is located in what was once a very run down section of the city and is still populated by the unfortunate homeless masses that hold the most creative signs up for the tourists vieing for that loose change in your pocket. Some of the classic ones had phrases like " I need money for weed" and others with that old chestnut, " I can't lie I just need a beer". Highly entertaining on one hand and very thought provoking on the other. I looked at the street fair as if we were animals with a proper food chain. Some were on the top of the food chain while others roamed the streets like crustaceans feeding off of scraps of the other life forms. Wow, I really have to stop watching old French and Italian films. So let's get back to the food. Here is a pictorial of food stuffs that can be found here.

Lot's of baked goods. Fresh sourdough breads filled with clam chowder.

Indian food vendors

Here is Sue's Greek marinated beef kabob. This one was very good. Nice and tender with a Mediterranean feel to it.

I had the Philly steak sandwich. The people at this booth were once again just so very friendly and I had them make it to my specifications. and they obliged, I had them add tons of freshly crushed garlic to the saute.
Although the sandwich was huge on proportion it really lacked any flavor at all. I mean really very bland. But on a nice blustery day in Portland it did it's job of making me feel warm and cozy, oh and the local microbrew beer helped too.

This is people watch Mecca. You can get lost here, not physically but mindlessly and every once in awhile that's OK.

Chow

Michael