~ Curious Charlie ~

South Melbourne Market Tour - Part 2 @ Thursday, September 19, 2013

South Melbourne Market Tour - Part 2

There was a flower stall in the same row as the shops outside we explored. Didn't see any other florists. Prices were meh but the flowers weren't fresh. Disappointing as I had hoped to buy flowers during this trip. - Not part of the tour by the way - Edit: There was more than one florist at the market but we only saw one.

Organic Produce - This store as the name suggests sells organic things, including dips that don't last that long (being organic). Some of the fruit veggies have a tag that says where they came from which is pretty cool.

We sampled the Fuji apple which had a "honey core" it was really good. It's from Forest Rambe in South Australia and costs $10 kg. I'd love to eat only organic things and buy fresh fruit every couple days, but I'm not sure if it's affordable or efficient. le beau & co and Hector highly recommend going organic. Mother is skeptical, claims that it's all lies, it's not organic, it's just a marketing thing. Ignore her, it's quite tragic that she somehow became a health lecturer. Though her area of specialty is reproductive cancer and not nutrition.

Fruits on Coventry

At this fruit shop we got to sample some of their products including flowers. Don't eat the flowers, it was gross! Purely for decoration and not eating just like fondant/sugar paste/almond paste in my opinion We tried a white vegetable which I can't identify, roma tomatoes which were really nice. And grapes, fresh & firm, I really liked them and bought some.

Purple Carrots

Tips from our tour guide, Janet on asparagus:
- Stand them in a jug of water, brown bag over top - in fridge
- Closed tips means it's fresh
Did you know they're harvested at midnight, coolest time. to transport to markets in the morning? This never occurred to me, I don't think too deeply. :P

They had these interesting looking 'Gold Nugget Pumpkin' $4 each, and 'Ready to Drink Coconuts' $3 (Yes they do have cold ones too). Tempting but I need both hands for the camera, especially cause I hurt my wrist (chronically).

Sourdough Bakehouse Organic Sourdough - The bread here is really nice and they have a large variety too. We met the owner who bakes all the bread himself (owning a bakery is hard work with very early hours). I really liked the bread with olives in it, but I already bought ciabatta the day before. But I'd definitely get something next time, by they way their breads are half price at closing time. ;)

South Melbourne Market Grocer - Quality Good at Discount Prices is the slogan.
A better name could have been picked. The owner is the guy with a black hat from South Africa (in case you're wondering, which you are, he's not black), he bought the business from a woman. Sorry don't remember the story for this one. Personally I'm a bit skeptic about the quality and the relationship to price, when it reminds me of the reject shop. They have Jelly Belly! - $2.50 each for 2 for $4. I got Lily the Hello Kitty one.

Part 3 coming up tomorrow.

Part 1 - Tour
Part 2 - This post.
Part 3 - Tour
Part 4 - Exploring
Part 5 - Super Cool (Emporium)