If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.
~ J. R. R. Tolkien
Visiting City Market this morning was a delicious experience. Haidee and I went around sampling some tasty things (especially loved the unique thyme-infused chocolate from Esque Chocolate), chatting with the lovely stall-holders about their produce and (unfortunately secret) recipes, and I also bought some fresh duck rillette which made for a delightful afternoon snack today.
Things I enjoyed: besides the food itself of course, I loved watching a smile flicker slowly across a baker’s face as he talked about what flours he uses in his bread, apologising that he couldn’t disclose details of his partner’s secret recipe… loved it when the lovely lady from Esque Chocolate shyly offered us two exquisite twigs of orange-peel chocolate, asking what we thought… loved seeing the lady selling vegetables obviously enjoying herself while bagging stalks of fragrant fennel and cheery figs for happy customers… loved listening to stall-holders talk about their area of expertise… loved seeing people milling around, taking time to do their grocery shopping…
If you want to read more about City Market, Millie did an excellent two-part review of it – here and here.
This is a snapshot of my duck rillette spread on some nice rye bread :-) Très bonne!
This afternoon, I decided to try my hand at making some pesto from Tessa Kiros’ “Falling Cloudberries”:
#55 Pistachio & Rucola Pesto – Page 306
Modifications: I used mesclun instead of rocket; and not having a weighing scale, I couldn’t ascertain the weight of my ingredients so I just went by instinct. Our blender isn’t working very well either, so it was pretty interesting shaking it vigorously in trying to get it to run! The result was a full-bodied, garlic-spiced pesto with the distinctive flavours of pistachios and parmesan shining through like a star – I do look forward to stirring this through some pasta on Tuesday night!
I also bought some fennel this afternoon, which I haven’t cooked with before… my poor flatmates John and Jono are going to be guinea pigs yet again for this dinner experiment (which I haven’t quite worked out the details for yet, except that it will involve chicken, cream, fennel, white wine, rosemary and maybe some leek and carrots).
[edit] Below: Tuesday’s pesto-ed pasta… (with leeks, cream, lemon & riesling)
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treehousekitchen 
Oh my. Oh my indeed. That is absolutely beautiful, Mel! Wondering how that would taste on some crackers….mmmmmmmmm!
yum!! glad you finally made it over there- so much fun, isn’t it? I love Le Canard’s goodies too and it’s become kind of a weekly tradition for me to get some terrine to snack on each Sunday. perhaps next time I’ll have to go for the rillette… mm :)
Hello Mel
it was lovely to meet you and Haidee yesterday – so glad you enjoyed your trip to the City Market. Come again soon….
Hi Annette! I most certainly will :-)
Oo I want to try this sometime! Yum!
It was a fun morning. When I raved on about the thyme chocolate to my colleagues/flatmates I got a few scrunched faces… but I think I convinced them to give it a go!
Good job there Ms Haidee! Hope lots of people go to get some chocolate… such chocolate is too good not to be shared. Seriously.