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OUTSTANDING MARKETS

Heaps of chilis, avocado pears, and cherimoyas are among the luscious fruits and vegetables on sale in the local markets of Mexico’s towns and villages, providing the basic ingredients for a sophisticated and at times fiery cuisine.

Nothing could be less like a routine dash to the supermarket than these life-enhancing journeys to the places where dedicated cooks seek out their ingredients, luxurious emporia where gourmets find their favorite delicacies, vibrant markets displaying produce harvested just minutes away, and sprawling urban bazaars that lie on the crossroads of ancient trade routes.

No matter where in the world you are, there are delights to sample. In New York City, acquaint yourself with the soul-pleasures of authentic pastrami sandwiches, pickled lox, or fresh bagels or bialys. In Moscow, enter the palatial premises of Yeliseyevsky for the type of caviar that graced the pre-revolutionary tables of the Tsars. Perch on a stool at one of the snack bars in Barcelona’s beloved La Boqueria market to sample intensely savory seafood stews or giant potato omelets. Be dazzled by the colors and perfumes of sun-warmed tropical fruits on the market-boats that ply canals in Thailand. Whatever your destination, carry a roomy shopping basket and come hungry—these feasts are not just for the eyes.

NEW YORK

NEW YORK DELIS

One of New York’s best-loved foodie destinations, Zabar’s draws big crowds with its smoked fish, coffee, cheeses, gourmet groceries, and much more.

In a city of great delis, the Lower East Side is home to some of the best.

New York City’s Lower East Side, a downtown neighborhood between Houston and Grand Streets, could be mistaken for another trendy spot overrun with hipsters and boutiques. But the narrow, crowded streets and old tenement buildings speak of an era when millions of East European Jewish immigrants settled here and, desperate for a taste of home, established culinary traditions that live on today. A stroll reveals the area’s rich roots. Katz’s, a delicatessen founded in 1888, is a favorite for old-timers; its massive sandwiches stuffed with thick, hand-cut slabs of pastrami or brisket and its crisp-edged potato latkes make a memorable meal. Appetizing stores, which sell dairy and fish, were once as common as delis on the Lower East Side. Today, only Russ & Daughters remains. A tiny shop, it offers a dozen kinds of smoked and cured salmon and a range of cream cheeses, as well as Old World staples, such as herring fillets and pickled lox topped with ribbons of sweet onions. Several blocks south, brick-colored barrels clustered along the sidewalk signal Guss’ Pickles. Garlicky full sours and extra-hot spicy pickles are among the best; munch on a few while the current owners regale you with the story of their business. If you are still hungry, Zabar’s, the appetizing counter turned renowned food emporium on the Upper West Side, is worth a trip uptown for its selection of traditional and gourmet products.

Appetizing Stores

Cream cheeses, smoked and cured fish, caviar, dried fruits, and nuts are just a few of the tasty offerings you will find at appetizing stores, which sprang up in New York City in the late 19th century. Kosher dietary laws dictate that meat and dairy products cannot be sold or eaten together, so stores such as Russ & Daughters tout classic fish and dairy pairings, such as lox and cream cheese, and pickled herring in cream sauce.

Appetizing foods include a range of sweet and salty options to accompany fresh bagels and bialys. Though the food once represented typical immigrant fare, today it is regarded as a rare treat. What has not changed are the interactions between customers and counter-men, many of whom have been slicing salmon while swapping news with regulars for more than 20 years.

CALIFORNIA

FERRY BUILDING MARKETPLACE

Bins filled with colorful displays of fresh local fruit are among the many attractions that draw residents and visitors to the Ferry Building Marketplace.

The Marketplace and weekly farmers’ market provide the finest seasonal produce and local specialties.

In San Francisco’s flagship Ferry Building on the Bay, a foodie’s paradise has taken reign. Walk through its doors into the vaulted, skylit nave, where a line of archways down each side create storefronts for northern California’s finest food vendors, whose stalls spill over with bins of fresh mushrooms and bunches of sunflowers, delectable pastries, and coffee stands. One of the first shops is Cowgirl Creamery, a purveyor of earthy artisan cheeses. Next door, just try ignoring the aroma of Steve Sullivan’s legendary Acme Bread, where breads made from organic flour and handpicked grains are baked daily in the hearth oven. Down the way, indulge in an extravagant snack of caviar and champagne at Tsar Nicoulai Caviar, a caviar café run by pioneers of domestic sturgeon-farming. Further on down the aisle, at Recchiuti Confections, pick among seductive, handmade, jewel-like creations—signature truffles, fleur de sel caramels, and pâtés de fruits. Nearby, sip tea the Chinese way at Imperial Tea Court, an emporium of exclusive teas. Here, too, you’ll find some of San Francisco’s most celebrated restaurants and cafés, chief among them The Slanted Door, serving modern Vietnamese cuisine using ingredients culled from Bay Area farms; and Mijita, a cocina Mexicana, or Mexican kitchen, known for its Oaxacan chicken tamales and Baja-style fish tacos.

Ferry Plaza Farmers’ Market

On Tuesdays and Saturdays, a rambling farmers’ market pops up outside the Marketplace, providing a showcase for organic, in-season fare: heirloom tomatoes, pungent herbs, flowers, local wine, honey, olive oil—and hard-to-find provisions, such as nettles, as well as free-range eggs in tints of mint and baby blue.

Free samples will ensure that you don’t need to buy lunch. But if you do still have an appetite, grab some local cheese, fresh-baked bread, and local wine and stake out one of the plein air tables behind the Ferry Building, with spectacular bayfront views. Life doesn’t get much better than this! Or maybe it does: Go to heaven with an oyster po-boy from the Hayes Street Grill stand (ask for it on a baguette).

Restored to its pre-Revolutionary, art nouveau splendor, the Yeliseyevsky food store in Moscow sells delicacies from around the world.

CANADA

GRANVILLE ISLAND MARKET

Artisan bakers are among the array of specialist vendors in the market, where the senses are bombarded with mouthwatering sights, smells, and colors.

Granville Island’s passion for local produce makes this multicultural market in central Vancouver unmissable.

Over the last 30 years, Granville Island has been transformed from a hazardous sandbar in False Creek into one of Vancouver’s biggest attractions. “It’s a temple of food,” says Jérôme Dudancourt of Oyama Sausage Co., busy serving a stream of customers with sausages and fragrant hams in a variety that, like Granville Island Market as a whole, reflects Vancouver’s ethnic complexity and cosmopolitan tastes, and its preference for locally sourced, organic, and traditionally made products. “We use traditional French, Italian, Spanish, German, Dutch, and British recipes but we adapt them to this century,” he says. A similar approach is taken at nearby Edible British Columbia, promoting jelly made from locally grown lavender, coffee roasted on nearby Salt Spring Island, homemade Thai curries, and much more. Cheeses at Dussa’s include local sage Derby, and soft, rich Salt Spring Island goat’s cheese. Other stalls are piled with the freshest salmon, scallops, and crabs from the same ocean that laps the market building. Vancouver’s large Chinese population dominates the fruit and vegetable stalls, and also sells everything from Indian curry and Italian ice cream to fish and chips, which can be consumed at water-view tables while watching for herons and harbor seals. Even simple grocery shopping is out-of-the-ordinary here.

Market Food

■ For a unique local product buy the syrup of British Columbian birch trees. The yield per tree is only about 10 per cent of that of the maple, but the flavor is richer and more complex, and works well in marinades for local salmon.

■ One of the longest-standing vendors is Lee’s Donuts, and the warm, sweet smell of the freshly baked rings and doughnut holes (powdered or glazed) pervades the market. A special pumpkin spice doughnut baked only around Halloween attracts long lines of customers.

■ Edible BC offers a three-hour, chef-led tour of the market that is often sold out. It includes tastings of ingredients and discussions of their best use. Even residents who take the tour find that they learn something new about what is on sale.

MEXICO

THE MARKETS OF PUEBLA

Artfully arranged piles of flawless fresh produce are typical of local markets all over the state of Puebla.

Explore the city where indigenous cooking traditions and Old World ingredients combined to produce modern Mexican gastronomy.

Seventy miles (112 kilometers) southeast of Mexico City, at the foot of the great volcano Popocatépetl, lies the city of Puebla. Built by the Spaniards, this showplace of baroque architecture is surrounded by much older Indian towns. The inevitable culinary commingling of the two cultures is nowhere more evident than in Puebla’s markets. The aroma of spicy stews being cooked in clay pots over wood fires is joined by the scent of flowers from fields outside the city. To the clapping of women patting out corn tortillas, a sound called “the heartbeat of Mexico,” is added the cry of the vendor, who hawks everything from regional candies to hand-carved wooden spoons. Wend your way through aisles lined with stacks of fruits and vegetables, basketsful of aromatic spices, piles of bright green chilies and dried red ones. Stop to try the blue corn quesadillas filled with squash blossoms, wild mushrooms, and local cheese. Quench your thirst with an Agua de Jamaica, a refreshing hibiscus flower punch. Get herbal remedies, candles, and amulets from the hierbero (herbalist) and cooking advice from the pollera, whose freshly plucked chickens sit on an intricately embroidered cloth. Then carry your purchases home in a handwoven market bag.

Squash blossoms are used in tacos, soups, and crepes.

Demystifying Mole

Mole (pronounced moh-lay) is a rich, dark, sweet, and spicy sauce, the product of Spanish-indigenous culinary fusion.

Mole poblano (mole with turkey or chicken) was probably invented in the 16th century in Puebla’s Santa Rosa convent. Native chilies and chocolate were ground with cinnamon, cloves, and allspice to create a sauce with sophisticated layers of flavor.

Not all mole contains chocolate. Seed-based mole is called pipián–green when made with pumpkin seeds and fresh chilies, red when made with sesame seeds and dried chilies.

PERU

CUSCO’S CHRISTMAS MARKET

The vibrant colors of the Christmas market in Cusco’s Plaza de Armas adds to the holiday atmosphere.

The local Andean people begin their Christmas celebrations with a large market in the center of Cusco.

One of the largest markets in the Andes, Santuranticuy unfolds in Cusco’s main square and the surrounding streets on Christmas Eve as thousands of Peruvians gather to do their yuletide shopping and soak up the holiday atmosphere. Santuranticuy literally means “selling of saints”—a reference to the fact that the market once specialized in nativity scenes. But over the years all sorts of items have been added to the makeshift stalls, from indigenous arts and crafts to traditional Andean foods. One of the more visible dishes is cuy (guinea pig), slowly roasted on rolling barbecues and served with a spicy chili sauce. Other market edibles include barbecued corn on the cob, tamales (a meat filling wrapped in banana leaves), rocoto relleno (stuffed peppers), and anticuchos (beef hearts). Santuranticuy’s trademark beverage is ponche de leche, a potent hot toddy made from milk and pisco brandy. As Peruvian families have their big holiday dinner on Christmas Eve, many of the restaurants around the plaza and elsewhere in central Cusco serve special meals that center around stuffed turkey, roast pork, and half a dozen different types of potato. Among the restaurants that serve a traditional Peruvian holiday dinner are Pachapapa on the Plazoleto San Blas, the MAP Café inside the Museo de Arte Precolombino, and the Inka Grill on the main plaza.

The Potato

Peru’s most popular foodstuff is the humble potato, which originated thousands of years ago in the highlands around Lake Titicaca. While scientists attribute the potato to plant evolution, the ancient Inca believed that it was a gift from the gods, one of the crops that supreme being Viracocha bestowed upon his devotees so that they would never go hungry.

Nowadays, the variety is astounding—around 5,000 different types of potato are either cultivated or grow wild in Peru. They come in all colors—brown, purple, red, white, and yellow. And while almost always roasted or baked, they are rarely served plain. Peruvians garnish their potatoes with cheese, garlic, onions, fried eggs, lime juice, and dozens of other items that complement their flavor.

PHILIPPINES

SALCEDO MARKET

The Saturday market is a meeting place for the whole community and provides visitors with a chance to try delicious delicacies from the country’s many regions.

Sample the different cuisines of the Philippines’ 81 provinces at Manila’s weekly community market.

The Philippines boasts a regionally diverse cuisine influenced by centuries of Chinese, Malay, Spanish, and American trade and colonization. There is no better place to get acquainted with its varied flavors than at Salcedo Community Market, a Saturdays-only collection of more than 130 stalls selling fresh and prepared food in the heart of downtown Manila. Arrive ravenous and follow the lead of locals, who alternate on-the-hoof grazing with sit-down feasts at shared picnic tables. Sweet tooths might start with piaya—griddled flat cakes oozing muscovado sugar—from the central island of Negros, accompanied by a cup of hot chocolate made with local cacao; chili fanatics will want to sample the spicy Bicolano preparation of fresh crab bathed in chili-hot coconut milk. There are deep-fried, rice-flour empanada from the northern province of Ilocos, stuffed with garlicky pork sausage, green papaya, and an egg; and diminutive, delicate empanada filled with crab meat from the nearby gourmet province of Pampanga. Join the lines in front of grills piled with boneless milkfish stuffed with tomatoes, red onion, and cilantro mixed with soy sauce; or deep-fryers sizzling with ukoy—crisp shrimp and sweet-potato fritters. Not to be missed is lato, a briny seaweed resembling miniature bunches of grapes that marries well with a dressing of coconut vinegar. Pasalubong, or edible souvenirs, include smoked tuna belly and truffle-like pastillas made from the milk of water buffalo.

Salcedo’s Alternative Market

Salcedo’s alter ego is a boisterous morning market (6 a.m.–1 p.m.) held on Sundays on the grounds of the Philippines Lung Center in Quezon City, about 20 minutes from downtown Manila.

Expect twice as many booths, four times the number of patrons, and an exhaustive selection of fresh produce, meats, fish, and well-priced Philippine crafts. Provincial specialties include Negrenese lumpiang ubod (soft spring rolls filled with batons of fresh palm heart), bibingka (cheese-crowned puffy rice-flour pancakes cooked in clay pans set over charcoal), and cups of barako, a super-caffeinated variety of coffee grown in the southern Luzon province of Batangas.

THAILAND

DAMNOEN SADUAK

Lunch vendors selling cooked foods mix with others selling fresh produce In Thailand’s traditional floating markets.

Experience the colors and flavors of Thailand’s busiest floating market.

Laden with green papaya and orchid garlands, a sampan glides across the water in the early dawn, leaving barely a ripple on the silky waters of the klong (canal). A dog barks, a bird calls, as housewives venture one by one onto the canal-side pontoons to bargain for supplies with the vendor in the boat. Minutes later, a whole flotilla is paddling along the labyrinth of waterways toward the market klong. Located about 60 miles (100 kilometers) west of Bangkok, Damnoen Saduak is the meeting place of locals, visitors in search of tasty food, and country women peddling wares from their orchards and gardens. Exotic fruits abound, and luscious vegetables burst with vitamins. There are pea aubergines and yard-long beans, lotus roots, bamboo shoots, water spinach, giant radish, baby corn, and much more. Soon, floating kitchens fill the air with fragrance and smoke as stir-fries sizzle in the woks. Try a takeout meal wrapped in banana leaves, or join the locals feasting on spicy soup and noodles, satay, or rice flavored with fish balls, tofu, or shrimps. Expect tangy accents of lemongrass and coriander, lime, ginger, tamarind, and plenty of coconut milk in whatever you sample.

Thai Cucumber Salad

This salad provides a refreshing counterpoint to satay or spicy meat dishes.

Put vinegar, salt, and sugar into a small saucepan. Simmer over medium heat until the sugar and salt dissolve and the sauce thickens slightly. Let cool.

Wash the cucumbers, then cut them into quarters lengthwise. Slice them thinly and place in a serving bowl along with the shallots and peppers.

Just before serving, pour the sauce over the salad and mix. Garnish with chopped cilantro and peanuts.

MALAYSIA

RAMADAN MARKETS

Neatly arranged piles of skewered snacks tempt hungry customers at the end of a day’s fasting.

Break the fast with some of the best Malay food in Kuala Lumpur’s impromptu Ramadan street markets.

Come Ramadan, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia’s largest city, is transformed into a street-food mecca as dozens of markets catering to fasting Muslims spring up in parking lots, along alleys, and at curbsides. Each afternoon around half-past three, hundreds of vendors—some seasoned catering professionals and others gifted home cooks—heap tables with pyramids of popiah (soft spring rolls filled with chili-sauce-seasoned jicama and carrot), rainbow-hued kuih talam (unctuous coconut-milk-based sweets), and tubs of bubur, a soulful meat and rice porridge scented with cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, and peppery laksa leaf. Clouds of smoke wreathe sellers of ayam percik (barbecued chicken doused with chili-coconut sauce), satar (skewered banana-leaf-wrapped packets of seasoned fish paste), and ikan bakar—meaty stingray, whole snapper, or mackerel doused with fiery sambal (chili sauce) and grilled on a banana leaf—as others labor over hillocks of wide rice noodles snapping and sizzling on enormous griddles. By half-past six the crowds are thick and spirits high in anticipation of buka puasa (breaking the fast). Thirty minutes later it is all over, and the visitor is left to decide which of Kuala Lumpur’s other Ramadan markets to visit the next day.

What to Order

It is said that the best Malay food is found in private homes. So Ramadan markets—where many vendors are also homemakers—offer an unrivaled opportunity to sample authentic Malay home-style dishes.

■ Kerabu are salads made from anything, from perky wild fern tips to shredded green mango, dressed with coconut milk, chili, fish sauce, and lime juice.

■ Dalca is a comforting mélange of coconut milk, chili, and turmeric-stewed vegetables and lentils.

■ Rendang consists of chicken or beef simmered to tenderness with lemongrass, galangal, chilies, coconut milk, and warm spices, such as cloves, nutmeg, and mace.

A rare quiet moment on Chandni Chowk.

INDIA

OLD DELHI’S CHANDNI CHOWK

The market is also a busy thoroughfare.

This lively market in Delhi’s “Old City” is a must for anyone seeking traditional Indian fare.

Chandni Chowk, “the moonlit avenue,” is a bustling thoroughfare running through the heart of medieval Old Delhi. Built by Mogul emperor, Shah Jahan, it has operated as one of the city’s busiest and most colorful market areas since the 17th century. Lined with stallholders who sell everything from calculators to caged birds, the avenue and its many ancillary back streets are also home to thousands of different types of traditional Indian foods. Look out for chaat (salty street snacks), like vada, a kind of savory doughnut made from spiced lentils or potatoes dipped in gram flour; or sample pani puri, a crisp puff of hollow bread filled with curry. The area also houses some of India’s oldest halwais, or candy stores, where the recipes have been passed down through generations of store owners for hundreds of years. Sticky jalebis made from a piped squiggle of dough, fried golden in ghee and drizzled with syrup, are a local specialty. Order a namkeen lassi (a salty yogurt drink) to cool the heat of any chili-spiked nibbles you have eaten, and push past the crush of people, goats, trishaws, and bullock carts to spend some time browsing the market stalls for clothes, jewelry, and souvenirs. Once done with shopping, take some time to explore the historical mansions lining the side streets, or to visit the rich variety of holy shrines that surround the area. No trip would be complete without seeing the Jama Masjid—India’s largest mosque—and the Red Fort, both nearby.

Local Specialties

■ In the walled city just to the south of Chandni Chowk are several Jain temples, including the Lal Mandir. Many Jains, who are strict vegetarians, live here, and the local restaurants produce some of the finest vegetarian food in the city.

■ Look out for Paratha Wali Gali, a little lane leading off Chandni Chowk. Most of the shops here specialize in parathas—flatbreads, often topped with, and folded around, delicately spiced fillings.

■ Giani’s Ice Cream on Fatehpur Chowk, near the Red Fort, is famous for rabri falooda, an ice-cold concoction of noodles and nuts in thick, sweetened, cardamom-scented milk.

■ To try chaat, the savory snacks that are Delhi’s favorite street food, drop in at the hole-in-the-wall Shree Balaji Chaat Bhandar (shop no. 1462, Chandni Chowk), Lala Babu Chaat Bhandar (no. 1421), or Natraj Café (no. 1396).

The allure of shelf after shelf of candies in every shape, size, and color never fades.

AUSTRALIA

QUEEN VICTORIA MARKET

The Deli Hall is a good place to shop and people-watch.

Drop in for coffee or spend the whole day exploring this vast market in one of the world’s great food cities.

Food is important in Melbourne and this large market, housed in a series of old buildings on the northwestern edge of downtown since 1878, is heaven on Earth for foodies—and anyone who enjoys a good pie, croissant, baklava, chocolates, bratwurst, sashimi … Melburnians are sophisticated when it comes to culinary matters because their city, more than any other in Australia, has been built on the arrival of successive waves of immigrants. Greeks, Chinese, Croats, Vietnamese, Italians, Indians, Lebanese, and others have arrived in large numbers, each bringing their own unique cuisine. These varied culinary traditions, combined with the availability of local fresh produce, have created a robust tradition of excellent food, and where better to sample this glorious legacy than in the halls and open sheds of the venerable Queen Vic? Within are high-quality (but competitively priced) delicatessens, their stalls groaning under the weight of fresh local produce: delectable cheese, wine, luscious fruits and vegetables, and a weight-watcher’s nightmare of doughy delights too numerous to list. It is a great place for lunch, or a snack at any time of day, or even just to wander around—take in the aromas and capture the essence of one of the world’s great food cities.

Market Favorites

■ Many people’s favorite part of the market—and without doubt the most aromatic—is the Deli Hall (sometimes called the Dairy Produce Hall) with 17 delicatessens and specialty stalls devoted to bread, olive oil, cheese, wine, pasta, and coffee.

■ The Food Court is a modern addition to the market and a great place to enjoy a quick snack or more substantial meal. Takeout food is also available.

■ The Meat Hall is the place to find top-quality butchers and fishmongers.

■ The Elizabeth Street Shops is a delightful 19th-century parade housing several gourmet cafés and specialist merchants.

TURKEY

BALIK PAZARI, ISTANBUL

The wondrous displays of fish at Balik Pazari draw local shoppers, visitors, and the city’s top chefs.

Istanbul’s covered fish market has a reputation for selling the best fish and shellfish available in Turkey.

At Balik Pazari, literally “fish bazaar,” near Çiçek Pasajı, or Flower Passage, in Istanbul’s lively Beyoğlu district, uniform rows of silvery mackerel lie head to tail on beds of shaved ice, like soldiers in parade formation. Flat, pinkish flounder from the Aegean Sea hang from heavy metal hooks at the back of stalls displaying a wealth of the sea’s seasonal bounty: such as palamut (bonito) and lüfer (bluefish) from the Bosporus and fist-sized octopuses from the blue waters of Bodrum, where the Aegean meets the Mediterranean. “Nice levrek (sea bass) today,” a mustachioed balikçı (fishmonger) calls out as he unloads another crate of the Mediterranean fish—a signature dish of Turkey when baked whole in a thick crust of salt. Muslim women dressed in tesettür, the traditional headscarf and long, lightweight topcoat, young children in tow, carefully examine the day’s catch, as do chefs from the city’s most prestigious restaurants. The tantalizing aroma of mussels sizzling in kettles of olive oil lure customers, who inspect the wide assortment of mezes, or appetizers, available to sample and buy. Visitors to the market will also find a colorful mélange of fresh-produce vendors, dükkân (small grocers), and meyhane—traditional Turkish tavernas for drinking raki (anise-flavored aperitif) and other alcoholic beverages with tapas-style mezes.

Dining Like a Turk

An evening at a meyhane is one of drinking—usually raki—and eating, starting with a number of different mezes shared by the table. Your waiter will bring out several dishes, each plate with enough food for two or three people (more if everyone just wants to sample). The meal starts with cold, typically vegetarian, mezes, such as cheese, yogurt dishes, or pureed dips served with pide (Turkish flat bread), and sometimes shrimp, octopus, or other seafood. Hot mezes are next—fried calamari, sautéed lambs’ livers, or börek (meat, cheese, or spinach-filled pastry)—followed by an entrée of grilled meat, chicken, or fish, ordered individually. Dessert is often a selection of baklava, kadayıf (pastry), and seasonal fruits, served with Turkish coffee.

CZECH REPUBLIC

CHRISTMAS FAIR IN PRAGUE

Prague’s markets are lit with thousands of tiny lights, shimmering against the backdrop of some of the city’s most beautiful buildings.

Every winter, the Czech capital plays host to some of Europe’s most atmospheric Christmas markets.

Prague, with its Gothic architecture and ice-clear winter light, provides the ideal backdrop for traditional festive cheer. In the Old Town Square, between the looming cathedral and the astronomical clock, stalls are set out throughout the month of December, arranged around a huge Christmas tree and a wooden nativity scene, complete with real animals for visitors to stroke. Other squares in the town also host Christmas markets, and at each one are rows of homely wooden stalls with pitched roofs. Traders sell all manner of glass, wood, and straw decorations and Czech handicrafts, such as puppets, birch boxes, and glassware. Every so often, you will come across seasonal local delicacies, many prepared in front of you. Buy a cup of hot, mulled wine to warm yourself as you browse, or sample the sweet Czech honey liqueur (medovina), and nibble on gingerbread, almond cakes, and trdlo (grilled rings of sweet bread dipped in ground almonds and sugar). Local meat snacks include spit-roast pig and grilled sausages, roast chestnuts, and grilled corn. Look for food gifts, like elaborately decorated gingerbread houses, sugared almonds, molded marzipan, and spiced cookies. Prague at this time of year is a city straight out of a winter fairy tale.

Christmas Entertainment

There is a stage in the Old Town Square that hosts performances by choirs and instrumental groups from around the world throughout December. Particularly charming are the children who come from schools all over the Czech Republic to perform carols and dances here, beautifully dressed in traditional costume. The markets are at their best in the evening.

ITALY

RIALTO FISH MARKET

Locals head to the Rialto fish market early In the day, when the catch Is at Its freshest and the choice at Its richest.

The colorful, bustling food markets of Venice are just a short walk from the Rialto Bridge on the Grand Canal.

As gulls hover in the air and motorboats chug across the water, you might be forgiven for thinking you were at the seaside. But this is the famous Rialto fish market—a covered, colonnaded marketplace in Venice, one of the world’s most beautiful cities. Market day at the Pescaria, as it is known, begins just before 7 a.m., when the fish is unloaded from small motorboats on the side canals. Glistening fresh and still smelling of salt, the fish tumble onto the tables in an unending stream. Every fish and crustacean you can think of is here, along with more unusual varieties: black eels writhing in buckets, purple octopus, or moscardini, and special Venetian favorites, such as cuttlefish, canocche (a cross between a shrimp and a crab), and schie, tiny shrimp from the lagoon that are eaten grilled or fried. Fish has been sold here for more than 500 years, and locals still come to do their daily shopping. There is an old plaque on one of the walls giving required fish measurements. And, like the tides of the lagoon itself, the market constantly fluctuates, filling and emptying by the minute. The noise can be deafening as the stallholders shout out to their customers while deftly filleting fish on makeshift tables. By noon, the crowd has grown into a seething mass. And then, just an hour later, it is all over: the stalls are empty, the tables and people have gone, and all that is left are the seagulls swooping down to pick up the scraps.

Buying and Eating Fish

■ Visit the adjoining stalls in the Campo delle Beccarie selling salted fish (salting fish has long been a tradition in the lagoon), canned and smoked fish, and bottles of cuttlefish ink.

■ No visit to the Rialto is complete without lunch at the nearby Trattoria alla Madonna—Venice’s best-known fish restaurant. The seafood risotto is one of the finest in the city.

■ Sample fish cicheti (snacks) in a bacaro (wine bar) or one of the many bars in the area. Nazaria, Bancogiro, and Al Pesador near the Rialto Bridge are all good for snacks as well as full meals. Be sure to try the classic Venetian favorites: seppie al nero (cuttlefish in its ink), sarde al soar (sardines marinated in onions and white-wine vinegar), and baccala mantecata (creamed cod).

A market vendor at Castries Market, St. Lucia, waits for customers, her stall laden with typical West Indian fruits, vegetables, and spices.

ITALY

CAMPO DEI FIORI

Little has changed in the Campo dei Fiori, and vendors continue to ply their trade as they have done for almost 150 years.

For a truly authentic Italian market experience, nothing beats a stroll through the oldest street market in Rome.

Situated in the historic center of Italy’s capital, the Campo dei Fiori was once nothing more than a grassy field (its name means, literally, “field of flowers”). Now, the piazza is paved with cobblestones and has been the site of a bustling flower and food market since the 1860s. All the vibrancy of the city of Rome is reflected here, not just in the brightly colored flower stalls, but in glorious displays of fruits, herbs, and vegetables spilling out from suspended antique baskets or arranged in neat rows on the stalls. As well as the standard Mediterranean fare, at different times of the year you can find yellow radicchio with purple-blushed leaves, small, firm zucchinis in flower, long-stemmed artichokes, puntarelle (a jagged-leaved salad plant), white currants, white cherries, and the delicate fragole di Nemi—tiny, sweet strawberries that grow wild in the region. The colors are dazzling and the whole experience is a sensory feast, as the air fills with the voices of stallholders advertising their wares and the heady aroma of fresh spices wafting from the stalls. Many kinds of meat, bread, fish, and cheese are also sold here, along with everyday household items. And there is plenty of room to wander at will until lunchtime. Things start to wind down after 2 p.m., and by 3:30 the market is cleared up in readiness for the piazza’s other function—as a center for the thriving nightlife that fills the surrounding bars and restaurants. Until then, it’s time to sit down in a café, order an espresso or an aperitif, and partake in that favorite Italian pastime of people-watching.

Roman artichokes
Carciofi alla Romana

Serve hot or at room temperature.

Mix mint and garlic in a bowl with 1 tbsp of oil. Snap off artichokes’ dark green, outer leaves, rubbing exposed edges with lemon to prevent discoloration. Cut 1 in (2.5 cm) off the top of each one, and use a spoon to scoop out any fuzzy parts. Peel the stalks.

Spoon herb mixture into each artichoke and place, stalk ends up, in a pot. They should fit tightly. Add salt and water to the oil to make 1 cup (8 fl oz/225 ml) of liquid and add to pan. Cover and simmer for 1 hour until tender.

FRANCE

NIGHT MARKETS, DORDOGNE

A familiar night market scene as festivities get underway in the 14th-century town of Sarlat, 45 miles (72 km) east of Bergerac.

The Dordogne’s night markets are popular community events with everyone from grandparents to babies in prams turning out.

Visit any number of the Dordogne’s medieval villages in the evenings during July and August, and you will find one of France’s cherished local food markets in full swing. With the roads through the village closed, the central squares of Creysse, Issigeac, and Eymet, to name just a few, fill with local residents and visitors walking from stall to stall, choosing their meal for the evening from vendors hard at work with portable stoves, barbecues, and paella pans. Oysters, mussels, shrimp, bulots, (whelks), magret de canard (duck breast) served with garlic potatoes, paella, round steak, freshly baked bread, charcroute (sauerkraut), barbecued eels, and grilled whitebait are just some of the local fare on offer, as well as strawberries, crepes, ice cream, and, of course, a choice of wines from several local estates. Order what you fancy and join the throngs at the tables that have been put out in the square. Everyone is welcome to buy, sit, eat, and drink, wherever they like. If you are lucky, a band will strike up later on and spectators will get up to dance—husbands with wives, grannies with grandchildren, mothers with sons, friends with friends—as the music flits from a traditional French line dance, through waltzes and foxtrots, to rock and roll.

Five Popular Markets

■ Creysse, just to the east of Bergerac, holds night markets on Saturdays, overlooking the Dordogne River.

■ Further east, Cadouin’s markets are on Mondays, held beneath the town’s renowned Cistercian Abbey.

■ The wine-producing town of Monbazillac, south of Bergerac, holds a market in the château grounds every Sunday.

■ In Eymet, further south, the night markets are on Tuesdays.

■ Issigeac, to the southeast of Bergerac, hosts a night market every Thursday.

SPAIN

MERCAT DE LA BOQUERIA

An abundance of food is on offer at Barcelona’s historic La Boqueria market.

Just off Barcelona’s main promenade, Las Ramblas, is the entrance to a temple to gastronomy.

The Mercat St. Josep, popularly known as La Boqueria, is the living heart of the city and one of Europe’s most famous markets. For the first-time visitor it is an unforgettable experience: the colors, noise, bustle, and scale of the market are overwhelming. More than 30,000 different types of food are sold here, from local specialties, such as pimientos de padrón (small green peppers), bacalao (dried salt cod), and fuet salami, to exotic fare, such as ostrich and emu eggs. Meat and charcuterie, fish and shellfish, nuts, fresh and dried fruits and vegetables, chocolates, flowers, breads, cheeses—everything is here. And the quality is excellent—many of the city’s Michelin-starred chefs buy their produce here. But the real treasures of La Boqueria are the numerous kioskos, or tiny eating places. Kioskos are the birthplace of the cuina de mercat (market cooking), and their food is not only top-quality (they use fresh ingredients from the market) but cheap. Diners sit on stools at U-shaped counters around tiny kitchen areas and watch Catalan delicacies being turned out at top speed. Local favorites include El Pinotxo, El Quim, and the Bar Boqueria, but there are others. You can breakfast, lunch, or snack your way through the day here on mouthwatering tapas, such as clams steamed in wine, garbanzos and blood sausage, tender baby squid sautéed in garlic and olive oil with eggs—or the ubiquitous Catalonian staple, pa amb tomàquet (tomato-rubbed toast)—washed down with a glass of chilled cava.

Tomato-rubbed toast Pa amb tomàquet

Grilled bread with tomatoes is the signature dish of Barcelona. It is served alone or as a first course. Anchovies, roasted vegetables, or salami, ham, or other cured meats can be served with it.

Toast the bread until it is a deep golden brown. If you are using garlic, cut a peeled clove in half and rub it over the bread to flavor it. Discard the garlic.

Cut the tomato in half and rub the cut half against the bread. If the bread is slightly stale and well toasted, it will act as a grater against the tomato. As you rub, the bread will become slightly soggy and you will be left with the tomato skin, which you should discard.

Drizzle the top of the bread with olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt. Repeat with the second slice of bread.

ENGLAND

LONDON’S FOOD HALLS

Fortnum and Mason’s food halls are spread over two elegant floors at the famous shop on London’s Piccadilly.

Several of London’s high-end department stores are home to world-class food halls.

In England’s thriving capital gastronomes can browse among caviar and truffles to their hearts’ content. One of the smaller food halls in the city is on the ground floor of Selfridges & Co., on busy Oxford Street. Here you can find unusual groceries alongside a handful of great places to eat, including a traditional London pie shop, an outlet selling English bangers (sausages), and an Italian gelateria. For a more traditional experience, head to Fortnum and Mason on Piccadilly, where old-fashioned curiosities, such as vintage marmalades, rose and violet creams, mustard recipes dating back to the Tudors, and relishes like piccalilli and pickled walnuts are stacked high—and have been for 300 years, since the founding of the store in 1707. Perhaps the most opulent of all is the sprawling series of halls, each the size of a ballroom, at Harrods, Knightsbridge. Built in 1902, the halls retain many of their original features. Look out for the display of fresh seafood next to the oyster bar, where the fish is presented in blocks of color, much like an artist’s palette; and don’t miss the cavernous room full of tempting artisanal chocolates. It is all about choice—where else can you find 15 different kinds of butter? Don’t be shy to ask to sample a sliver of cheese or charcuterie before choosing one of the hundreds on offer, and make sure you take plenty of time to explore what must be one of the greatest temples to food in the world.

Fortnum and Mason’s tea

Taking a Break

■ At Selfridges & Co., try the Moët Bar above the Chanel Boutique for classy nibbles, a glass of champagne, and a bit of celebrity spotting (it’s a favorite gathering place for fashionistas).

■ Once you have filled your basket with goodies at Fortnum and Mason, visit St. James Restaurant upstairs for afternoon tea.

■ Try the Ladurée tearoom, the charcuterie bar, oyster bar, sushi bar, or tapas bar at Harrods—you can find them in the food hall alongside several other eateries.

EGYPT

KHAN EL-KHALILI

Copious quantities of aromatic, culinary spices fill the air with the heady aromas of North Africa and the Middle East.

Cairo’s burgeoning, labyrinthine market lies at the heart of the city’s old Islamic quarter.

At times the muezzin’s call to prayer drowns out the cacophony of voices haggling over prices and the blare of Arabic music at Khan el-Khalili, Cairo’s famous 14th-century grand souk. Passing shops selling gold, silver, papyrus art, textiles, perfume, and syrup-soaked sweets, head to the section where spices are sold. Large, open sacks and baskets overflow with golden saffron, fire-red curry, sweet nutmeg, red and green peppercorns, and dozens of other exotic, aromatic spices. Strings of dried sweet peppers and eggplant hang in shop doorways. Solemn men in gallabéyahs hurry to the al-Hussein Mosque in the Khan as you pause at one of the market’s street-food vendors to order ful mudammas, Egypt’s national dish of garlicky mashed fava beans served with eish masri (Egyptian pita bread). After shopping, you can relax at El-Fishawi Café, a 200-year-old qahwah (coffee shop) on al-Badistan, where smoking a shisha (water pipe) and drinking hot shay bi-nana (mint tea) is de rigueur. Locals also drink karkady, tea made from the dried, dark-red petals of the hibiscus flower and drunk cold. If you order coffee, expect it to be ahwa turki—a strong Turkish coffee served in a tiny porcelain cup. Drink it slowly, with small sips, to allow the coffee grounds to sink to the bottom. And be firm about how much sugar you want—the Egyptians like their coffee sweet!

Fava Beans Ful Mudammas

This Egyptian staple is often eaten for breakfast with slices of hard-boiled egg.

Cover the beans with water and soak overnight. Drain. Cover with fresh water, add the onion, and simmer until tender (about 1 hour). Drain the beans, put them in a bowl, and stir in olive oil, garlic, lemon juice, cumin, and salt and pepper to taste, partially mashing some of the beans. Serve at room temperature with pita bread, chopped parsley, lemon wedges, and more olive oil.