Welcome to my seven year long Saturday morning ritual.
I wake up around 6:30am. I grab my green bags, a box, or a trolley, call my dog, and get going to the West End Markets. I'm one of the early birds who like to get in before the weekend vacationers and the local hungover crowd wander in.
There are two stalls in particular that are my favourite. There's a giant veggie market that has long aisles of produce, and is best known for the rad selection of vintage tunes (we're talking Dion and the Belmonts, Billy Holiday, Otis Redding) that fill the air while you squeeze and carefully select your fresh eats. I have never failed to get everything I need from them for less than $20.
Then there's the sweet couple up at the very start of the market (before you get to the soccer field) that sell all sorts of cool fruit. Go nowhere else for your tropical adventure treats. Blood oranges, dragon fruit, mangosteens, pink grapefruits, sapote. They've got it. And if you don't know what something is, they'll let you try before you buy. In truth, I just really want to hug these guys. They make my Saturday every Saturday.
By this time, I'll want some coffee. I like to go down to the Gypsy Caravan and order myself a coffee, nab a milk crate and watch whichever band or muso that happens to be playing on the makeshift stage that has the river as it's background. I'll start spotting some friends at this point, and we'll then all generally go hunt down some brekky goods to enjoy together. Some people will bring back an omelette to the picnic, the drunks will usually go for the kransky at the German Sausage stall, others, simply raid through a punnet of berries and some yoghurt.
Even though there are clothes and trinket stalls, for me, it's really about the food stuffs. They've got sourdough, a stall that sells only apples (great stall, go there), olives, a honey stall, yoghurt stalls, cheese stalls, seafood stalls- I'd be suprised if you couldn't find what you wanted while you were there.
At first you might not get why there are families with deck chairs sunning themselves in the middle of the soccer field, or why you have to fight your way through a natural corridor of a million dogs and prams, but it won't take long. Everyone loves this market for their own reasons, and so will you. read more