Sonata :
The sun's shining . Ark-building is temporarily on hold . Three Polyanthus For Only 2.99 Euros are now appearing by the supermarket checkouts and there's a bird busking by the kitchen window .
Of course , it won't last . It is , after all , still January and the weekend forecast is dismal , but I nipped quickly into town and people-watched at the market . The man at the biggest plant stall had his arms full of flowers , " Five bunches of tulips for 3.50 , Mevrouw?" he asked a beady-eyed woman , to which she replied "Five"? I don't need five! ". "Give one to your neighbor , then ". Just one look at her face and we all saw that she'd eat her own arm before she did any such thing . I wondered what the neighbour was like ....
The man at the paprika stall was employing his usual sales technique , throwing a couple of extras in your bag and charging you anything that comes into his head/what he thinks you'll pay today ( He's safe . His paprikas are the best in town. )
The Lebanese stall heaped hummus , olives , feta , and sesame-sprinkled Turkish bread into my bag and charged me ridiculously little , giving me a chunk of bread with a garlicky dip as a farewell gift
Oh I've missed all this , during these dark , dreary winter days . But now I'd better pull myself together and make a huge pot of hearty soup , before the hail begins again .
Smitten Kitchen's Carrot and Ginger soup sounds good .
15 comments:
It's snowing here...
Just in tme for the weekend and potential road chaos.
Our market is almost non-existent these days and no-one woulk recognise a paprike (let alone a Lebanese stallholder) if it beit them on the a....
Oh, you've taken me back to the Saturday market at Stokkel in Brussels! What I wouldn't give to go there again and munch on a waffle fresh off the pan, and stick some berries from one of the fruit stands in all the little holes!
Not quite like that in your average supermarket, is it!
I'd love five bunches of tulips.......
We're relatively snug here. But I'm taking no chances. The firs roaring, the home made ragu is made. My husband is coming home after a hard week....
Oh my goodness this sounds luscious! We went to Israel last year and the hummus was outlandishly good. I live in small town America and we don't have a market like that. I wish we did. blessings, marlene
Thats what Ilove about reading my chosen blogs, they can take me somewhere other than here, if I wish.
A whole stall just for paprika, mmm warm reds!
I must be confoozled... it sounds like you're using the word "paprika" as a food, not a spice. Is that right? I've only ever heard of one kind of paprika (the spice)... do they have variations? Or am I missing the point completely... please help me out! 8-)
Sorry , I'm using paprika the Dutch way , meaning sweet peppers . He sells all sorts and shades of bell peppers , pimientos de piquillo ( the long pointy ones ) , chili peppers in various degrees of evilness .... as well as aubergines and courgettes , pumpkins and root ginger .
But to me , he's the paprika man .
I love your market! We're lucky at the one here if the cheese man turns up selling his plastic wrapped cheddar.
I knew there was something else going on there... thanks for the illumination.
*lightbulb flickers to life overhead*
I desperately want to go to the market with you--perhaps we could split up at the start and take individual notes on the people there...and then compare our observations at the end. And Turkish bread? Envy.
Your hail got us here today. Thank you. Hearty soup making happening on a major scale.
This weekend you're going to freeze, hasn't it already started on your side of the Channel?
How I'd love to come to a market in Europe. Have something for nothing? never. A bit of banter? where do you think you are? Squeeze a fruit? call the police!
I just came over all a'flutter because you reminded me how much I miss eating a broodje haring after the market shopping in Delft. I DREAM about eating haring. Makes me drool unsophisticatedly on my pillow...
I bet your hearty soup tastes good in this bitterly cold weather ;-) But... the sun is still shining.
Are you suffering from Elfstedenkoorts, being a Frysian? ;-)
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