Green Market

I went to the Green Market in my neighbourhood yesterday. It's basically a huge open-air space, ringed by more permanent buildings selling meat, bread and cheese.

I didn't want to buy meat first, so I ventured inside to check out the fruits and vegetables. It would look very familiar to any of you who have been to the Green Market in Skopje, although it was a little bit larger, and didn't have as much non-perishable stuff, although there was one guy selling batteries, and another with a counter full of faucet heads. I wish I had needed one.

It looked like it was going to rain any minute, but there were still lots of people there. I'm sad to report that my first experience was a purse snatching. Right after I took this picture, an older woman screamed and a young man ran off down the street. Several men took off after him and a crowd quickly gathered to offer succor and demand police intervention. I stayed around for a couple of minutes, but eventually I moved my wallet to the front pocket of my jeans and got down to business. I'll let you know if I hear anything.

Everybody is a specialist; there is no one-stop shopping here. By far the most appetizing items were the strawberries, cherries and raspberries. I bought a half kilo each of the first two, thinking that the raspberries are just starting to come in (they weren't nearly as abundant) and I can only eat so much fruit.

I also bought a half kilo of gorgeous baby spinach from this woman, who never stopped yelling at me, after I was slow to decide and misunderstood the price (about $3/kilo. The same money will buy you 12 ounces at the Harris Teeter). I'm sorry the picture didn't come out better, but I was afraid she might ban me if she caught me taking it.

After that I stopped in at the MiniMax, a supermarket right outside, to pick up a few things. There is also a market right across the street from my apartment, and I was able to pick up some prosciutto and parmigiano reggiano there for my dinner, which was penne with roasted hazel nuts, diced prosciutto and baby spinach. Very nice.

For breakfast today, I had yogurt with strawberries and muesli, sweetened with a little jam. Sadly, my apartment seems to be furnished with only a handful of plastic forks and knives at present, but luckily the yogurt was plenty thick. I also can't seem to locate coffee filters for sale anywhere to use in the coffee maker I asked for, but luckily the kitchen also has one of those Turkish stovetop pitchers, so I've survived. There's also a Costa Coffee just up the block, which makes a mean americano, so life is not as hard as I make it sound.