Farmer’s Markets/Night Market – Page 2

Six for Saturday Silliness

July 22, 2023 mmm-yoso Bakery, Farmer's Markets/Night Market, Markets & Grocers

Recently, when I was having coffee with our good friend "Alle" and went over my typical Saturday morning errands she was incredulous and couldn't quite believe I could make 5-6 stops and finish in 3 hours and change. So today, I decided to pay a bit more attention to things and decided to do this silly Saturday post.

My Saturday usually starts with a cold brew from Bay Park Coffee. I usually get there around 720 – 730, get my cold brew and head on down to the Little Italy Mercato. As I mentioned in an earlier post I park on Ivy, I'm usually there around 745 or so and take a nice stroll to the market. I always enjoy the art and slices of life I see along the way.

Six For Little Italy 01

Though there have been adjustments and different vendors I'll check out; the first place I stop is across Columbia Street at the Indian Summer stand, which I also mentioned in that earlier post.

Six For Little Italy 03

The proprietor, Andrew knows all his regular customers and is a really friendly guy. Andrew has 20 dozen eggs for sale each Saturday. It's kept behind the counter. It's the Missus's favorite eggs at this time, so I usually get 1 or 2 dozen each week. I'll also get various produce items as well.

I'll then cross Columbia and hit up the produce stands there.

Six For Little Italy 04

Being careful not to disturb the "Shiba gang".

Six For Little Italy 05

The Missus is currently on a blueberry kick ("it's brain food!"); so I'll pick up a three pack from here.

Six For Little Italy 06

I then cross over India to do more shopping. Right now, the Missus's favorite avocados come from this stand.

Six For Little Italy 07

The folks here are so nice. I'll tell them I need three avocados, one for tomorrow, then another two days after, and then another for one to two days after that. They'll pick out a set of fruit to match my requirements. Such great service!

Little Italy Mercato
Saturday 8am – 2pm

I'll then head back to the car either taking India Street…..

Six For Little Italy 08

Or Kettner. Anyone want to title the photo below????

Six For Little Italy 09

This morning it was 820 when I headed off to my next stop. There's not much traffic or crowds at this time of the morning on Saturday.

My next stop is just 10 minutes away as I head up India Street, then take a right up Washington to…..

Six For Lazy 01

For certain produce items (they often have decent white asparagus when in season) and specialty grocery like the stuff below that the Missus is currently obsessed with.

Six For Lazy 02

Lazy Acres
422 W Washington St.
San Diego, CA 92103

Well, remember those avocados? The Missus is still wanting avocado toast a couple of times during the week, so I have to make a stop at Con Pane for some sourdough. This morning, my drive down Washington to Pacific Highway, then Barnett took a mere 12 minutes. Yes, Con Pane is super busy on weekend mornings, but since I'm not getting sandwiches, etc, I can take the "Bread line".

Sox For Con Pane 01

Sox For Con Pane 02

Even if there are one or two people in front of me, I usually get out and to my car (I usually just park by Slater's 50/50) in 20 minutes.

Con Pane Rustic Breads & Café
2750 Dewey Rd.
San Diego, CA 92106

My next drive is the longest. I usually drop by Nijiya every Saturday morning. There's usually something we need from there; whether it's tofu or sencha for the Missus, or like right now, She is requesting Katsu Don or Kelaguen on a weekly basis and prefers the chicken from Nijiya. I make Nijiya my fourth stop since it opens at 9am. This morning, the drive took 17 minutes and I arrived at 910 avoiding the initial mass of humanity at the doors waiting for the market to open.

Six For Nijiya

Nijiya wasn't very busy on this morning, so I got out of the place in 15 minutes!

Nijiya Market
3860 Convoy St Ste 109
San Diego, CA 92111

Now on occasion I'll stop by the 99 Ranch Market on Balboa…which would make it a "seven for Saturday". But there was no need on this day so it was off to my next stop; down Balboa and onto Morena.

Six For FS

This morning it took 14 minutes to get to the Fruit Stand. I can't believe I last posted on the place 17 years ago! Anyway, more produce, especially when I'm grilling veggies for the Missus.

The Fruit Stand
4330 Morena Blvd
San Diego, CA 92117

The last stop, for odds and ends, is only a few blocks from home; Sprout's. Even with the hell that is the road and pipe work happening on Clairemont Drive (we avoid like the plague during weekdays) it was but a 10 minute drive.

Six For Sprouts

On this day, it was scallions, sweet onions, alkaline water (for the Missus), and some various snacks. I take advantage of the self check-out here which is usually much faster than waiting for the cashier.

Sprout's
3015 Clairemont Dr
San Diego, CA 92117

I walked into the house with our bags of groceries at 1020! Just in time to start working on lunch! Sigh……

Thanks for indulging me and I hope you have a fantastic weekend!

Toulouse – A Day Trip to Albi and Lunch at Ebisu Ramen Bar

July 21, 2023 mmm-yoso Farmer's Markets/Night Market, France, Japanese Restaurants, Ramen, Toulouse, Montpellier, Carcassonne, and Occitania, Travel

We were really enjoying Toulouse. It had a totally different vibe than Paris, more grounded, mellow, down to earth. We wanted to do a bit more exploring, so I had booked train tickets to Albi, a town with quite a history. As a plus, Elyse of Toulouse Guided Walks informed me that Saturday was Market Day in Albi which was well worth checking out. Our location right at Place du Capitole made it a snap getting to Toulouse Matabiau via the metro. We took an early train (725am) to Albi-Ville, arriving just past 840 on this crisp Saturday morning. From the train station, it was a short 15 minute walk to the main square and the immense Sainte-Cécile Cathedral (Albi Cathedral) a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is also said to be the largest brick cathedral in the world.

The red brick buildings really catch your eye.

The Market stalls were being set-up. We walked on over to the Marche Covert passing stands with some humongous produce. Check out this frisee.

Or these Cepes.

We were both shocked at the size of the veggies!

We stopped for a coffee at one of the local shops.

Before heading into the covered market.

There wasn't much going on as most shops hadn't opened yet. The bean vendor was open and I saw actual Tarbais Beans being sold. I was quite excited as I use the wonderful beans we get from Rancho Gordo and wanted to compare. Then I saw the price; it was 35€ a kilo! Yikes, that's like $20 a pound! For beans? Still, I went ahead and bought a half kilo.

From here we decided to cross over the Tarn a check out the view from there. So we headed down the atmospheric streets….

Down the Quai Choiseul.

And down to the river before crossing over on Pont Vieux which dates back to the 11th century.

Things were even more quiet on this side of the river. And the views were wonderful.

Things got more lively as we headed toward the other, larger bridge to cross on back. And a market was going on here as well. This one was more bustling.

We eyes the produce before crossing back over the Pont Neuf.

It was now getting close to 10am, when the Cathedral is opened for visitors, so we headed on over.

As much as the church really looks like a fortress, the interior was quite stunning. Your eyes are instantly drawn to the enormous mural of the Last Judgement which dates back to 1474.

It is the largest Last Judgement mural from the Middle Ages.

After wandering about for a while, the Missus was ready to head on back to Toulouse. So we strolled on over the Albi-Ville and caught the 1126am train.

Arriving back at Place du Capitole, we decided to look for a place to get some lunch. Walking toward our hotel, we passed this Ramen shop.

It was pretty cold, so some ramen sounded pretty good. Of course we wouldn't be having our ramen outside either. The drill was interesting. Ordering was done on a machine, memories of Japan, but payment was not. You basically got a number from the machine and placed it on your table. Once your order is ready it is delivered.

As we would often do at these places, we got a rice bowl, in this case the Sukiyaki Don.

We had ordered an extra tamago with this, which was a shade on the over cooked side and not marinated well. The egg yolk in the bowl was also too hard and over cooked. The rice was on the mushy side, but the beef was fairly tender, with a decent soy-sweet balance. What was interesting was that a good amount of togarashi was used giving this a bit of a kick.

As for the ramen. We got the Shoyu Ramen.

As you can see, the Missus was all about the tamago on this day. This bowl had a lot of "stuffs"; scallion, spinach, bean sprouts, cabbage. The best item in the entire bowl was the menma which had a wonderful texture and the earthy-soy sauce tones were on point. The two slices of "chashu", I use the quotation marks because the two thin slices were not pork belly, it was lean and tough.

The broth was really "flat", lacking in richness, hardly any shoyu flavor, and was the color of muddy water. And this was one of the rare occasions where I think the soup needed salt!

The noodles were overcooked and mushy.

You can't win 'em all……

Ebisu Toulouse
3 Rue Lafayette
31000 Toulouse, France

At least we were just steps from our accommodation. It was time for a nap!

Taichung – Yizhong Night Market, Revisiting Miyahara (Twice), and Doing Some Shopping

July 7, 2023 mmm-yoso Farmer's Markets/Night Market, Taiwan, Taiwanese Food and Restaurants, Travel, Xiao Long Bao

This is a pretty long post, so I'm going to try to keep the verbiage to a minimum.

After our late lunch at Taichung Rou Yuan we took the short walk back to our hotel and took a break. For dinner, we decided to visit another night market. We didn't feel like getting a cab to Fengxia Night Market, which is said to be the largest in Taiwan. Instead, we decided to take the 20-30 minute walk to the Yizhong Street Night Market instead.

Along the way we strolled thru Taichung Park, which has a large man-made lake.

Folks in Taiwan really know how to relax and seem to be very social.

As we crossed Jingwu Road onto Yizhong Street, things didn't look too busy.

But one block further down….well, man it was super packed.

It was just overwhelming to say the least.

Some of the lines were crazy. We walked from one end of the road to the other end. Not only were the stands busy, but the shops that line the street with everything from food, to cosmetics, gifts, clothes, and knickknacks were as well. As we hit the far end of the street, things calmed down a bit, the crowd seemed a bit older and there was even some seating…..

From here we took a quick loop around the stands again and found our places.

This booth made Rou Jia Mo, which looked good. It wasn't the typical Shaanxi style rou jia mo like we had in Xi'an, but featured and light and almost flaky bread, not like the typical "baijimo" (flatbread). This was very tasty.

This booth was selling XLB like dumplings.

Which were being made on the spot.

You placed your order, was given a number. When your order was ready it was called out.

These were pretty darn good…so porky!

Because we'd had a huge breakfast and a late lunch; this was enough for us. Plus, even though this was a bit of fun; the crowds were getting to us.

We took a quieter, roundabout way back to where our hotel was located.

On the way back, we decided to drop by Miyahara again.

As I mentioned in that earlier post; Miyahara is owned by Dawncake whose main store we visited earlier. This place has all kinds of "stuffs" that you never knew you needed.

While this fanciful, "Harry Potterish" shop used to be an ophthalmology clinic, it's now known for all their stuffs and the ice cream served here is super popular. We loved this "punny" sign.

After all the walking we'd done, we slept quite soundly.

The next morning we woke refreshed.

And availed ourselves of the nice and huge buffet breakfast.

The variety was impressive.

Our train to Chiayi was not leaving until 120pm, so we packed and stored our luggage at the front desk and headed out to do some additional Pineapple Cake shopping for my MIL. On Ziyou Road we found several shops selling pineapple cake, after having tastes, two of them past muster and we bought some.

I thought that the Pineapple Cake from this shop was the best I tasted during our entire trip.

Of course, I don't have much of a sweet tooth, and I've had my fill of Pineapple Cake so don't even ask me to taste any……

We saw a location of Ten Ren Tea and having visited the SF location many times were curious. We walked in and were greeted by the sweetest woman.

The Missus loved one of the Oolong Tea's and was told it's a limited crop and is only sold in this area and is not exported so the Missus got it.

While chatting with the woman, the Missus was constantly cracking up. Later She told me that the woman was dissing other tea producers, but doing it in the most "sweetest" way that She couldn't help but crack up!

We did a bit more exploring.

And took our required tea break.

And even headed back to Miyahara…..

Before heading back to the hotel, picking up our bags and making the short Taichung Station. We weren't catching the HSR, so we could leave from the station in the city.

The original Taichung Station has become a historical park and the structure along with the very modern station next to it makes quite the juxtaposition of buildings.

The old rails have been converted to sitting and dining areas….

And of course, there was yet another craft market going on!

Of course we had a train to catch and did not have much time to dally, so my wallet was left unscathed!

And soon enough we were off to our next stop! Chiayi!

Thanks for stopping by!

Big Island – The Volcano Thursday Market, Revisiting Halemaʻumaʻu, and Dinner at Kilauea Lodge Restaurant (Again)

May 29, 2023 mmm-yoso American/New American Restaurants, Farmer's Markets/Night Market, Hawai'i - The Big Island, Seafood, Travel

After lunch at Suisan we headed back to the Kilauea Lodge and took a short break. I also made late dinner reservations at the restaurant, this would allow us to spend more time revisiting Kilauea Caldera. We decided to head back out before sunset so we could easily find parking and relax and watch the "show". Before heading back there, I had one more stop in mind. It was Thursday and Volcano Village has a local food and crafts market at the Cooper Center. So, we headed there first.

It's a quaint little market and it seems that a lot of the folks there were locals as folks were having fun socializing.

Food and craft booths were set-up thru the community center.

It was a nice little stop.

Volcano Thursday Market (At Cooper Center)
19-4030 Wright Rd.
Volcano, HI 96785

We then headed back to the Kilauea Overlook and easily found parking adjacent to the lookout. There were folks just arriving to check out the "show".

Folks even brought beach chairs! We chatted with a few folks and they were all locals; some driving all the way from Kona!

Several folks brought offerings for Madame Pele.

We just stood and watched Halemaʻumaʻu doing its thing.

As the sun slowly set the bright red colors became the star of the show.

You could even make out the spatter cone!

We just loved this! We stood our eyes fixated on the crater, just as amazed as we were the night before. Heck, if we stayed another night, we would have returned again!

As it was, we felt blessed to have been able to have a once-in-a-lifetime experience twice!

More folks started arriving and the parking lots were closed. It was time to head back for dinner.

We just wanted to take things easy on this evening and had made dinner reservations at Kilauea Lodge Restaurant again.

The staff here are wonderful, so warm and friendly.

This time we started with the Coconut Brie which came with the bread made inhouse.

The coconut crust was a bit too sweet for us. There were also spots where the coconut was burnt, adding a rather unpleasant bitterness to the dish.

We enjoyed the bread.

The Missus had the same main as previous night, Crispy Tofu.

Again, we thought the star of the dish was the cauliflower and mushrooms.

This time around, I kind of went against my better judgement and got the Seafood Risotto.

The risotto was the standard par cooked version and some of the arborio rice was under cooked and hard in the center, it was also on the salty side. The Kaua'i Shrimp was outstanding, sweet and briny, cooked perfectly. The mussels were overcooked and dry; but the clams were nice and tender.

Overall, based on our dinner the previous night, we got what we expected. Of dishes, made better by the fantastic staff.

Kilauea Lodge Restaurant
19-3948 Old Volcano Road
Volcano Village, HI 96785

And most of all, we got to witness the glory of Madame Pele and nature!

Taipei – 2/28 Peace Memorial Park and Ningxia Night Market

April 22, 2023 mmm-yoso Farmer's Markets/Night Market, Taipei, Taiwan, Taiwanese Food and Restaurants, Travel

After lunch at Lao Shandong Homemade Noodles we decided to slowly make our way back to the hotel for a break before heading out in the evening.

But first, we would stop at one of the hundred of tea/boba shops for some light refreshment.

We ended up making 2-4 "tea stops" everyday….these places are so inexpensive….our drinks would usually be 30-35NT$ – think $1 -$1.15! We stopped at so may places that I just couldn't keep up with documenting them.

We made several stops on the way back.

This one is the Taiwan Provincial City God Temple.

This temple is dedicated to the "City God", Chénghuángshén (城隍神).

This was quite a busy and colorful temple. This page has more info if you're interested.

There was one last stop for us. A few blocks away was a large and pleasant park, where the National Museum resides. On this day, there was a group of students looking to take what seemed to be school yearbook photos?

The park was lush, green, and quite pleasant, especially with temps hitting the 80's with the equivalent humidity.

It was fun watching folks enjoying their lunches; or in the case of this pooch trying to get a squirrel to play with it.

This park was established in 1908 by the Japanese; the first European style park in Taiwan. It was then renamed Taipei New Park when the KMT took over. The current name is in recognition of what is called the 2-28 Incident. Which is detailed on this sign (click to enlarge)

Event which led to Taiwan being under Martial Law for 38 years.

Hard to imagine all of this taking place in such a peaceful green area.

We got back to our room and took a nice nap in airconditioned luxury.

For dinner, well, we thought it would be a nice night to finally go to a night market. After doing a good amount of research, we decided on Ningxia Night Market. I know many folks recommend Shilin Night Market, but after doing some reading, it seemed that night market has many more tourists. We'd have our choice validated by several cab drivers during our stay. The best quote was "Shilin is the place where tourist and young people go to spend money on things they don't need. Ningxia has better food and less crowds."

We decided to walk the mile and half to and from the market.

When we arrived, except for a couple of stands, things weren't too busy. Things would start picking up a few minutes later.

Ningxia Market stretches along a single street, lining both sides of the avenue. There are also restaurants on the street as well with any choices.

We decided to walk the length of the market before making our choices.

My first choice was a Scallion Pancake with Salted Egg Yolk.

This was crisp, fairly light, the eggy flavor coming thru quite distinctly.

Of course, once the Missus saw…well, more liked smelled the "fragrances" from this booth Her mind was made up.

The chou doufu was still being fried up, so we were guided to the table behind the booth.

Soon enough, the Missus's stinky tofu was delivered. Man, the smell was quite potent, though nothing like what we had in China.

And in terms of chou doufu, this was "all bark and no bite". It was crisp and smelled the part, but was very mild in flavor. I guess the Missus's rule for me still goes "if you can eat it; it isn't stinky enough!"

As we walked back down the street we saw this stand.

These looked good so we ordered some. After ordering, the mushrooms were refried to heat and crisp up.

Crisp and earthy enoki and two types of oyster mushrooms.

We'd enjoyed the vibe at the Ningxi Night Market, though I think the Missus had gotten Her share of fried food and really wouldn't order much for the rest of the trip!

We also enjoyed the walk back which took us thru some other neighborhoods in the Datong where places seemed open a lot later than where we were staying. There seems to be more younger people and boutiques and other shops the Missus enjoyed.

I was kind of bushed when we got back to the hotel. I guess I was a bit our of shape and not used to putting in the mileage like we do in, say Paris?

Obviously, I slept well.

Thanks for stopping by!

Hilo – Poke Market and Hilo Farmer’s Market

January 30, 2023 mmm-yoso Farmer's Markets/Night Market, Hawai'i - The Big Island, Poke, Travel

The Missus and I were so excited about heading to the Big Island. We both love the amazing environmental diversity, the warmth of the people, and just the relaxed vibe on the Big Island. I had good friends who had resided in Hilo for almost a decade and another good friend whose family used to own property in Kamuela that we'd check on, so we had visited many times in the pre-blogging days. So when the Missus asked me when was the last time we were on the Big Island, I gasped; it had been a decade! Even though we had only a couple of nights, we felt comfortable with the Big Island and had seen much of it before, so we'd spend our time focused on a couple of things and just enjoy ourselves.

It was interesting flying First Class on HAL, the Premier Lounge is quite comfortable, but only has coffee, tea, soft drinks, and those little bag of snacks they give you on flights.

Still, things were quite mellow here and it was right next to the gate for our flight to Hilo. The first place the Missus wanted to hit when we landed in Hilo was Suisan. Sadly, this was a Wednesday and I had to break the news to Her that Suisan is closed on Wednesdays. Which led to the question, "where are we going to get poke?" Luckily, I had a back up plan. I'd read about a little shop on Waianuenue Avenue simply called the Poke Market. We lucked out and found parking in the lot on the corner of Waianuenue and Keawe Street. The place was across the street. Ordering was done at a simple window and your food brought out from the door.

There was one young lady waiting to order at the window when we arrived and one rather disheveled old timer standing with his bike by the door. The young man running the place came out and handed the gentleman a poke bowl and simply told him, "you come back later and pay, okay?" I'm guessing this guy had no money and the owner of this place was really displaying true "Aloha".

Anyway, two of the six featured poke were sold out by the time we ordered. Because we had a rather substantial breakfast, we decided to just get three 1/4 pound portions of poke. The Hawaiian Style, Ginger Sesame Soy, and one that I would usually never order, the Shiitake Salmon. I'm not a big fan of salmon in poke.

We then walked down Waianuenue and then onto Kamehameha and sat on the stone wall in front of the Tsunami Museum, which looked like it was closed and had our poke.

The Hawaiian was our favorite, though it was on the salty side. The fish was tender and of good quality. Could have used more ogo, but this as much better than what we'd had the day before.

The Ginger Sesame Soy also had good quality fish.

We were surprised at the Shiitake Salmon, the salmon was tender, it had a nice savoriness and umami. I'm still not a fan of mayo on my poke though. I think it detracts form the texture of the fish….but since this was salmon…..

This was a nice start to our stay on the Big Island. And the Missus was to even get Her "Suisan fix" over the following days as well.

Poke Market
41 Waianuenue Ave.
Hilo, HI 96720

We decided to head on over to the Hilo Farmers, a place that we both love.

It was good to see that the place hasn't changed much. The Missus got some rambutan which She enjoyed over the next couple of days.

It was comforting to see that things haven't changed much since our last visit.

Hilo Farmer's Market
Corner of Kamehameha Ave. and Mamo St.
Hilo, HI 96720

We dropped by a couple of shops as we wandered back to the car.

As we sauntered over to the vehicle, the Missus and I looked at each other and laughed. It was so good to be back on the Big Island. All the craziness of life on the mainland had been paused and we had settled into "island time" quite quickly. Something that usually takes a couple of days. It was a great feeling.

We smiled and looked forward to our next stop. Volcano Village and Volcanoes National Park!

Edinburgh (2022) – Edinburgh Castle, Edinburgh Farmer’s Market, Statue of Bum, The Golden Mile, and Cheese From I.J. Mellis

October 22, 2022 mmm-yoso Cheese, Edinburgh, Farmer's Markets/Night Market, Markets & Grocers, Scotland, Travel, yoso-silly

**** Not much food in this one. Though if you like to see a San Diego connection and castles and such, this post might be for you. I'll try to keep things as brief as possible

Our two whole days in Edinburgh would be fairly full. I know that a visit to Edinburgh Castle is pretty much a must and since we'd be in Edinburgh over a weekend, I made sure to get tickets for the castle online with an entry time of right when they opened at 930.

One good thing about our AirBnb on Blackfriars street was its location right off the Royal Mile. So the walk was pretty easy.

We walked past places that would become all too familiar during our short stay in Edinburgh, like the St Giles Cathedral, which we'd visit the following day and the distinctive former Tolbooth Church, which is now a building known as the "Hub".

We were going to be early for our reservations, so we hovered off Castle Hill onto Johnson Terrace, before heading up the steps to the entrance to the castle.

I'm glad I booked tickets online as we got to go right on in and didn't have to wait in line. I also received a guide to Edinburgh Castle for free. As there were really only a couple of places in the castle complex that I wanted to see, we kind of just made sure to see those, like the crown jewels (where photos aren't allowed), we just went to those places and stopped whenever something caught our attention.

Because of where folks gathered, our first stop was below the Great Hall; the Prisons of War.

The vaults below the Great Hall and Queen Anne Building were first used as a prison during the Seven Years' War and by the end of the war held over 500 prisoners here. The vaults became a prison again during the American Revolution and the French Revolutionary Wars.

The Missus did think that they ate pretty well based on this display.

And of course, there are the stories; like the one I read about when a prisoner tried to escape by hiding in a dung cart. Unfortunately, the cart was emptied by being tipped over the walls and the prisoner supposedly died. Which, according to this post may or may not be true, the post also notes that the ghost of this prisoner still haunts the castle where you smell, well, you know what, while the ghost tries to push you over the walls of the castle.

We visited the Great Hall….

Took in the view from the Argyle Battery.

And when we got to Mons Meg, well, I totally forgot to take a photo because it had a view of one of the places I had wanted to see, the Edinburgh Castle Dog Cemetery.

Which was established in 1837 as the burial place for regimental mascots and soldier's pet pooches.

We took "aim" from Dury's Battery.

And explored the National War Museum.

Where along with the memorabilia and paintings of soldiers like Lieutenant James Irving above, we saw this.

That's Bob the dog who was the Regimental Pet of the Scots Fusilier Guards, 1st Battalion, from 1853 – 1860. According to this site:

"The regiment adopted Bob when it was based at Windsor in 1853. A year later he accompanied it to the Crimean War where he distinguished himself by chasing cannonballs at the Battle of Inkerman. In recognition of his courage, he was awarded the special silver medal attached to his collar."

We also visited the Royal Palace. Edinburgh Castle was the principle royal residence from the 11th to the 17th century, so many familiar names resided here.

Upon glancing upon the Scottish and British Royal Coat of Arms, I noticed something.

The Unicorn, the national animal of Scotland is wrapped in chains. I was wondering why and came across this.

We'd been exploring for a couple of hours at this point and things were getting crowded.

We headed out of the castle and down Johnstone Terrace.

But instead of heading East and back to the Royal Mile, we headed west. It was Saturday, which is when Edinburgh's Farmer's Market took place, so we walked on over to King's Stables Road to check out the Farmer's Market.

It wasn't a very large farmer's market, at least on this day. But the Missus did find some soap She loved. And folks were really friendly and nice.

Edinburgh Farmers' Market
NCP Castle Terrace Car Park
Castle Terrace, Edinburgh, Scotland
Saturday 9am – 2pm

I had another ulterior motive for heading in this direction. I was looking for a specific statue with a San Diego connection.

Near the end of King's Stables Road is a church – the Parish Church of St. Cuthbert.

And nope, this has nothing to do with the church's cemetery.

But right along one of the walls is a familiar statue. Do you recognize it?

Yes, it's Bum the Dog! I had done a post on the statue of Bum and his story back in June and mentioned an Edinburgh link.

This explains it. Edinburgh and San Diego are sister cities!

I considered this "mission accomplished" for the day. We decided to return to our accommodations.

Instead of returning by heading around Edinburgh Castle via Princes Street Gardens, we decided to make a U-turn and head back via Castle Terrace and Victoria Street, then head back via the Royal Mile.

We ran into a craft fair on the way back.

And did some shopping and browsing on the way back. We stopped in at a cheese shop I had on my list; I.J. Mellis and I ended up getting a sampler pack for our lunch back at the apartment.

Once back on the Royal Mile, I went looking for some rather obscure things. Like this one.

Apparently, this is the sight of the last public execution in Edinburgh. It is also said that Deacon Brodie, was hung somewhere near here. And to pile on with the irony, remember in this post I mentioned that Deacon Brodie designed the gallows that would be used to hang him. Kitty-corner from here sits Deacon Brodie's Pub!

Right before St. Giles Cathedral is this mosaic heart.

This is the Heart of Midlothian, which has quite a backstory. Everything I read said that folks spit on this a lot…..so perhaps it's not the best place to stand on and take your selfie????

Speaking of St. Giles Cathedral.

Well, we'd be visiting the following day, but there was something I wanted to see….in the parking lot.

John Knox founded the Presbyterian Church of Scotland and was a leader of the Scottish Reformation. John Knox was buried in St. Giles cemetery. Well, you may say that St. Giles has no cemetery. Because this is prime real estate, those in St. Giles cemetery were (supposedly) moved in the 17th century. But John Knox was (supposedly) not moved. So, if you'd like to find John Knox's grave it's in parking stall 23….

Yes, for real. On this day there were no cars parked in that stall, so I managed to get a photo. What's the saying? "Reality is stranger than fiction."

As we were walking along the Royal Mile I saw a couple of these structures.

These are Wellheads. This was the source of water for folks in the Old Town until the mid-1800's! Yikes!

We got back to the apartment. The owners were amazing as they had stocked the fully functional kitchen with coffee, cereal, bread, and such.

Because we had our "blowout" dinner in Edinburgh scheduled for this evening, having some bread and the cheese we picked up the I.J. Mellis made sense. I'd actually wanted to get stuff from the actual cheese monger, but they were super busy so I just went with a prepackaged sampler which was fine.

The blue cheese was especially good. I'll make sure to check them out again if I'm ever back in Edinbugh.

I.J. Mellis Cheesemonger
30A Victoria St.
Grassmarket, Edinburgh, Scotland

Next up, dinner at Martin Wishart. And yes, they'll be much more food in that post!

Thanks for stopping by!

Roadtrip (2022) – Ragamuffin Coffee (Oxnard), Ojai Certified Farmers Market (Ojai), Olive Hill Farm, and Lunch at Los Olivos Wine Merchant & Cafe (Los Olivos)

July 26, 2022 mmm-yoso American/New American Restaurants, Caffeine Fix, Farmer's Markets/Night Market, Markets & Grocers, Road Trip, Santa Barbara County, Travel, Ventura County

Whew, ever sine we got back from Ojai, the Missus has been wanting the amazing produce we got from the Ojai Certified Farmers Market. In addition, there was a place I'd been eyeing out to try in Santa Barbara county. So, we planned a overnight road trip to hit up some favorites, old and new, then grab dinner, and as it would turn out lunch from what is a new favorite of ours.

We first drove up to Ventura County and stopped at a place I've posted on twice before; Ragamuffin Coffee.

I needed a caffeine boost for all the driving and the Missus wanted some natural process beans.

Just what I needed.

Ragamuffin Coffee Roasters
550 Collection Blvd. (In the Annex Food Hall)
Oxnard, CA 93036

Next up a quick drive up to Ojai to the Farmer's Market.

We got three baskets of tomatoes from this stand…..last time we chowed it all down before we left town!

More broccolini.

And some eggs…..which are so good.

The Missus eyed some nectarines from this stand.

And ended up buying a half dozen….

And She's already has me planning our next trip up!

Ojai Certified Farmers Market
300 E Matilija St.
Ojai, CA 93023

I then made the 90 minutes drive to Los Olivos. We'd be having dinner and spending the evening in Los Alamos (California, not NM) and our room wouldn't be ready for a while; so I thought a stop in Los Olivos would be nice.

We stopped in at our favorite Olive Oil stop during our last visit here Olive Hill Farm.

We did a light tasting and the wonderful, no-nonsense young lady working was amazing with spot on flavor profiles.

We ended up getting a bottle of the Lucca.

Olive Hill Farm
2901 Grand Ave
Los Olivos, CA 93441

I'm thinking that we have a pretty large collection of Olive Oil right now…maybe I should do a tasting post. What do you think?

It was around time for lunch, so we took a look at a couple of places. Unfortunately, even thought the Fess Parking Inn is still there.

The restaurant we enjoyed in the Inn, the Bear and Star has been replaced.

So, we took a look across the street and decided to have lunch at the Los Olivos Wine Merchant & Cafe.

Along with the outdoor dining, there was a wind shop, bar, and restaurant.

The Missus had seen a salad being brought to one of the tables when we walked pass, which is how we decided on this place.

It was the Grilled Romaine Wedge.

I will often grill romaine or cabbage these days which the Missus enjoys, so this was a no-brainer for Her. She enjoyed the bacon and gorgonzola, and the salad wasn't over-dressed.

I looked over the daily specials menu. It was pretty hot, so I decided to order a bowl of the Japanese Cucumber Gazpacho.

While I would have preferred this a bit smoother with more of the vegetal "chorophyllic" cucumber flavors, it was quite refreshing with a clean finish.

I also ordered the Zucchini Sticks.

While some of the pieces of zucchini were under cooked and too hard for my taste, there were a couple that were nice and creamy. These were nicely seasoned and not overly salty.

This was a decent lunch, though nothing special; the staff was quite busy, but were professional and doing their best.

Los Olivos Wine Merchant & Cafe
2879 Grand Ave.
Los Olivos, CA 93441

As we strolled on over to our car, the Missus and I remarked about how much we enjoyed the vibe of Los Olivos. We just wished there were better accommodations (like under $400/night) and perhaps a nice destination restaurant.

It was a nice visit though….and it had been almost five years since we were last here!

We got back to the car and headed off…..Los Alamos beckoned.

Roadtrip (2022) – Luci’s Trail, Ojai Coffee Roasters, Ojai Certified Farmers Market, Ojai Olive Oil, and Rainbow Bridge Natural Food

July 16, 2022 mmm-yoso Caffeine Fix, Farmer's Markets/Night Market, Markets & Grocers, Road Trip, Travel, Ventura County

Our last full day in Ojai was going to be pretty full. Even though we did some hikes the previous day, the Missus still wanted to do another hike. So, we got up early and headed over to the Valley View Preserve and did Luci's Trail. The Missus loves hills…..not switchbacks mind you, but just heading uphill. Luci's Trail wasn't very long and didn't have a zillion switchbacks and the view was quite lovely.

The mist was still rising when we started.

But soon enough we rose above it.

And we enjoyed the view.

The trail is short enough….it took us just a tad over an hour to complete.

After which we headed into town and stopped for our caffeine fix at Ojai Coffee Roasters.

Nice people here; the Missus enjoyed Her pour over and I my cold brew.

Ojai Coffee Roasters
337 E Ojai Ave.
Ojai, CA 93023

It was still fairly early, so we took our coffee back to the Hummingbird Inn, freshened up, then sat in the front yard and enjoyed our coffee.

As a bonus, folks were bringing out their pooches for morning walks around the property which is super dog friendly. Got to meet a sweet Black Lab named Midnight…..I shoulda taken a photo, but was just having so much fun.

After our "coffee time" we headed back into town and went to visit the Ojai Certified Farmers Market. We both loved this farmers market….so much produce! I stopped counting at 20 produce booths!

I didn't take too many photos because we were just having a great time. We did buy some amazing tomatoes which we'd have for lunch. And since we'd be heading home the next morning and had a fridge we also bought some wonderful looking tomatoes and broccolini.

Ojai Certified Farmers Market
300 E Matilija St.
Ojai, CA 93023

Sundays 9am – 1pm

Here's what I made with the broccolini.

Topped with a couple of poached eggs and some truffle….man this was good!

After wandering thru the Farmers Market we walked back to the car and headed to our next destination. Ojai Olive Oil has a booth in the Farmers Market, but we wanted to a a tasting of a full range of their products. So, we headed off to their farm and tasting room. I had read that finding the farm was slightly confusing, so we followed the instructions on their site and found the tasting room with no problems.

Tastings were $10 per person. And you get as many of all the various olive oils and vinegars. You get a small container to hold the tiny cups and a bag of bread as well.

The cups are labelled so you know what you're tasting.

We were told that we could have as many tastings as we wanted and should not overfill the cups. I laughed and told the friendly woman about our our olive oil tasting in Crete and that we understood.

We sat outside and went thru our tasting.

After which we made some decisions and strolled back to the tasting room.

While we do prefer the stuff Pasolivo and even Temecula Olive Oil, we settled got bottles of the Tuscan, the Andalucian, and some Lemon Infused Olive Oils.

Ojai Olive Oil Tasting Room
1811 Ladera Rd.
Ojai, CA 93023
Hours:
Daily 10am – 4pm

On the way back to the hotel we decided to stop and pick up something for a light lunch. We had liked how some of the item looked in the deli of Rainbow Bridge Natural Food, so we decided to pop in and get a couple of items.

Which we took back and ate in the wonderful front yard of our accommodation along with some of those wonderful tomatoes.

The Missus especially liked the cauliflower and this did the trick of holding us until dinner.

Rainbow Bridge Natural Food
211 E Matilija St.
Ojai, CA 93023

It was now time for a short nap in the air-conditioned comfort of our room…..

And then it would be dinner time!

Thanks for stopping by!

Scenes From the Linda Vista Farmers Market

July 14, 2022 mmm-yoso Farmer's Markets/Night Market

So, I went to do a quick takeout visit to Zab Linda (post upcoming) and was quite surprised when I got to Linda Vista Plaza! There was a Farmers Market. Now, I had visited the former Farmers Market in that location, which I believed stopped doing business in 2019 and hadn't heard a word about their reopening.

So, I went and placed my order at Zab and then decided to check out what was going on in the Farmers Market. It was 245pm and the place was pretty empty.

LV FM 01

With only a couple of produce stands, which didn't have too much on offer it seems.

LV FM 03

There seemed to be more craft stands then anything else.

LV FM 05

And then about two-thirds way down the booths I saw this sign……

LV FM 06

So, when I got home, I did a search and came up with the website for this Farmers Market which is put on by a non-profit named Love, Linda Vista, which restarted the Farmers Market in June of this year. Kudos to them!

There were a nice variety of food stands.

LV FM 07

Which I definitely would have checked out if I hadn't already placed an order at Zab Linda, Rollin' Roots was just "rollin" into the parking lot as I left.

I'm hoping they do well and get more vendors. You can find the vendor list here.

LV FM 10

6939 Linda Vista Rd.
San Diego, CA 92111
Hours
Thursdays 2pm – 7pm