If you are going to tackle this monster, be ready. It's about five times as big as your normal market, and ten times as crowded. You also better take a good look at your wallet before you go in - you don't want to realize after the fact that you just spent $60 on vegetables. It can happen - this is where the big boys come to get the goods they will later assemble into tasting menus et cetera. Julia Child famously said of California cuisine, "that's not cooking, it's shopping." True dat, but you have to know what you want before you can go get it. Some here are on a mission, the other 50% are tourists who have been wandering around the Promenade when all of sudden they find themselves at 3rd and Arizona surrounded by the full bounty of our fine state.
Your first challenge will be parking. This woman has found a spot on the street - which is pretty much not gonna happen, so head for one of the municipal lots on 5th or 2nd. Take a look at what's in that wheely-basket thing - couple dozen eggs, box of peppers. Maybe she's planning on making some sort of mega-omelet.
This is the entrance - They park a police car in front ever since some maniac plowed through and killed several innocent bystanders (he thought the gas was the brake). I think it takes all the suspense out of the experience, but the cops are a fitting signifier as you enter. Santa Monica invented the hippie fascist. I once tried to buy fava beans fifteen minutes before the official market opening time and dude would not sell them to me. I thought he was joking. Hey man, there's like, rules, you know.
Apparently wearing a shirt is not one of them. I can tell this guy is tired of tourists asking inane questions about his tomatoes, squeezing them all the while. Little hot for a sweater, don't you think? I don't mean to dog on the tourists too much, so let me say this and I'll be done with it. Every time I go down there I hear at least three people excitedly proclaim "well, we could just eat here!!!," as if they are the first person to think up such a scheme. Please, don't say this. First of all, there is no decent prepared food at this market - maybe they are keeping it real by excluding the food stalls, or something. Second, there is no place to sit and enjoy the unwashed wonders you have just purchased. And even if you were to stop in the middle of the street and munch your tomato, you would barely get a bite underway before being panhandled or asked to sign a petition.
Here's a market tip for you: never buy anything in a plastic bag. They pack things this way for long haul transport, so who knows where this stuff comes from. You can get these same exact oranges at the supermarket without paying the inflated market price. Which brings me to an interesting point - once upon a time, the markets were a great deal cheaper than supermarket produce. Then, the farmers realized en masse they could actually charge more for their stuff, especially if they give the produce a pedigree:
Murcott tangerines? Of course. Everything got to have a proper noun in front of it...
I'm all for the farmers getting paid - that's some hard thankless work that few of us could imagine, let alone live the life. But when they start calling everything heirloom,' it's over. Add that to the list of food words I'd like to see banned. While you're at it, put premium on there, too.
What would any farmer's market be without some blathering hippy propaganda? At the end of Arizona possibly the worst bakers on the planet have a stand - Belzian, I think they call themselves. Imagine some vampire came along, but instead of blood he sucked out all the fun from baked goods. I'm not sure what the angle is here. Bombs? Rubber? ... Wine? Why eat other foods when you can have our shitty, flavorless bread? You can also get raw milk from the stand next to them, if that's your sort of thing.
I stick to the basics - stuff that is in season and looks stunning. You really can get a quality of produce here that I haven't seen anywhere else. By the way, have you tried roasting figs with goat cheese yet?
One Of my favorite stands, these dudes specialize in root vegetables. They had some really interesting looking 'black' Radishes - "tastes like a normal radish, but spicy." I decided that $2 a bunch (i.e. 4 total) was a bit steep. Instead I spent that dos on one of these 'breakfast' melons:
Check out this couple. Food is the secret to a lasting marriage, I'm convinced.
You can't pick a better time of year than this for the sheer number of things to buy. I scored big with arugula, chard, fancy romaines, white peaches, some more early tomatoes, frisee, and some unpasteurized goat feta. Maybe there's a little hippy in me, after all.
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