I had Banh Mi here. A wonderful charcuterie shop in the area near my lodging in Hanoi. There was a cockroach crawling along the skirting board whilst I was eating but I didn’t freak out or dropped dead. Everything was delicious.
Brawn
Cold cuts.
Different types of pâté, sausages and other things.
Even in French, though some last items are only in Vietnamese.
More memorable market visits include Tomohon market in Indonesia (err, the photos might be disturbing), and various neighborhood markets throughout South Korea (where ajumma are often preparing delicious banchan and bibimbap platters, among other dishes).
Japan gets top marks for its department store food halls, Bangkok may have the best-stocked supermarkets I’ve ever visited, and China has cool spontaneous night markets spotlighting regional fare.
I love the Food Hall at Harrods:
So many amazing things.
They have like 20 different kinds of English bacon, amazing patés and terrines, homemade sausages including the best bangers, many different kinds of caviar, delicious cakes and tea to die for, preserves and honey, all kinds of fresh baked bread, quail, pheasant, venison, small producer smoked Scottish salmon, etc.
I actually bought the best steaks I’ve ever had in my entire life there, grass fed estate Aberdeen Angus from Scotland. Beef should taste like beef and reflect its terroir. These were amazing.
There is a whole floor of great food, and almost any delicacy you can imagine from all parts of the UK, just collected and curated for you…
For me it is a destination every time I’m in London
Yep, have been to Harrod’s food hall. Fancy!
Markets in China and Vietnam are terrific. The markets in some places in China can be gruesome. Bloody butchered turtles, dogs and all other imaginable creatures just hung or flopped on the floor.
But, Japan takes the cake!
A few more photos in Bergen.
Dried smoked herrings. Very nice but if you have eaten dried smoked salmon belly in Hokkaido then Norwegian version is forgettable.
Dried smoked cod
Salamis, with photos of the animals so you know which you are eating. These are nice.
Then there is the mother ship, the Markthalle in Stuttgart:
The best of locally made delicious things curated for you, plus lots of foreign delicacies.
Of course there is a lot of fun stuff to be discovered on the road in the surrounding area too.
Just cruising down the by ways you may run into a dorfkäserei making goat cheese, or a forellenhof raising and smoking their own trout.
If you only have one day in Stuttgart then, however, the Markthalle is a must. It’s also next to the Stiftskirche and Altes Schloss so very convenient to all the main sites.
A market street in Osaka, Japan.
One of the amazing food floors in a department store, Sogo, in Kobe.
Thank you! Impressed especially by the beef and the seafood. Even the seaweed, they have so much choice.
Brings back memories. I went there several times during my stay in Osaka. Spent the last of my yens there on tuna of course. Japanese markets and shops are mind-boggling and mesmerising.
Since I’m not going to Germany for the holidays this year I had to get enough Lebkuchen to last me a couple of weeks. This is Lebkuchen Schmidt in Düsseldorf. It was busy in there so photo ops were limited. Aparrently I was not the only one buying a bunch of Lebkuchen in one go.
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Samples of gift boxes.
Crunchy version.
My order being rung up.
Enough Lebkuchen until new year.
Wonderful potato stand at the market, just around the corner from Hinkel bakery.
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I got several different kinds. Took some close-up photos of those I got.
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Checked out the market hall in Innsbruck yesterday. A small indoors market selling mostly quality and artisanal products. Expensive! Apologies for the lousy photo quality. It’s dark inside with strong yellow lighting.
In Poland one pays this amount for half kilo.
Per 10 grams
Giant Belgian endives. The size of Chinese cabbage.
Where I got my ramp and dried ceps.
Ouch, the price. At the moment asparagus is mostly from Germany, some is also from Italian side of Tirol.
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Smoked dogfish bellies. I have to check the photos I took in north Germany. Don’t remember the price there. This thing is nice and rich, you eat it sparingly. The name refers to the blond curly locks of Schiller. Interestingly, here in Austria there’s something else with the same name but it’s a pastry, horn filled with cream.
I got the Alpine ibex. Eur.22 for my piece. Other game meats cost even more, a lot more.
All kinds of home-made dumplings. During our brief conversation I mentioned I normally make these dumplings at home myself. The shop keeper exclaimed “then it’s not good for us!”, meaning her business.
Found the cheese I was looking for. Tyrolean grey cheese, this version is blue.
https://i.imgur.com/fU4e3sZ.jpg
Don’t have many photos taken inside supermarket. Not sure if it’s allowed.
Got this grey cheese for dinner last night. Same as the one above but a bit younger.
Austrian supermarkets all have a big wine section, there are imports as well. Domestic wines are categorised by states.
Not really interesting. No novelty flavours.
Bread cubes and crumbs for home-made dumplings. Austrians are big dumpling eaters.
New to me is these bread proving baskets that looks like bundt cake moulds. In German it’s called “proving mould with ring”.
@Presunto, do you know what “jambon olida” is? IT’s just a transliteration on the Vietnamese side of the menu. My google efforts show it might just be a brand of canned ham?
If you’re curious as to what the last items on the Viet menu were:
Russian salad
Deboned chicken stuffed with ham
smoked basa fish
smoked duck meat
The ham was produced by the company Olida in France. The factory closed down in 1992 due to debt and was eventually sold to several groups. Ham was originally craft made, Olida introduced the industrial ham sold vacuum pack in shops. They were known also for their can ham. I guess in Vietnam, it is the style they are referring to, not the brand.
I had no idea. I went in and ate Banh Mi.
Naf has done the research for us.
