Tuesday: FREE DAY!! at Mercado dos Lavradores

Mercado dos Lavradores

Anyone who knows me at all knows there are few things in life that make me happier than a good flea market.  Must be from ye olde days at the Busy Bee Flea on Unqua Rd. in Massapequa.  Instead of Depeche Mode pins and #44 white lightning lipstick circa 1983, this market had Portuguese souvenirs and food.  And lots of it.  I think that the pictures here will do a much better job of describing what we saw, so I will let them do the talking.  It was wonderful.  I had no idea people could be so aggressive about selling fruit, though.  That was an experience.  Tasted lots of strange looking fruit, and loved everything.....tuna the size of my own torso, or bigger--colors, smells, noise, and lots of sun.  Had a great time.  Blogging this just before dinner w/ Mom and Fatima and some others from the tour.  My purchases today were modest (incredible, I know...lol)  I bought a cocktail muddler and a lovely tile that I am guessing I will use as a hot plate.  

Here we go-- enjoy!!  

Mom and Fatima just inside the marketplace entrance.  FYI, most residences and buisnesses have these tile displays at their points of entry--a very beautiful aspect of the architecture here.  Some of them are simply describing who or what lives or works there, and some have a patron saint on them.  It depends, but it always looks lovely.   

I tried one of these fruits (above).  It was delicious, so I bought one.  When ripe, the skin literally falls off and the pieces are like a honeycomb.  Juicy and very very sweet.  Please don't ask what it's called, I couldn't remember that if my life depended upon it, but I'd know it if I ate it.  

This is the angry face of the ESCABA, or the black scabbard fish, which is the most popular/readily available fish in Madeira.  If I had gone to the market before I had lunch yesterday, I may not have ordered it.  Pretty heinous looking, but I can tell you that it was divine.  When fresh, it doesn't taste like fish at all.

Sardines!

The picture of this tuna steak is totally dissapointing to me.  The thing is HUGE.  Like, imagine a small side table.  There you go.

Sugar cane!

This is dried bacalhau, or baccala (in Italian), salted cod.  It's one of the traditional 7 fishes served on Christmas Eve.  I hate the way this tastes, it's usually far too salty, but the picture makes for good blogging.  This is the fish that was hung out to dry yesterday at the first stop on our tour.

Tomorrow, we go back to the city of Funchal.  We will be at the botanical garden, and then we will hit a cable car that goes from one high sea cliff way up north, down to the seaside for an arial view of madiera.  That should be fun.  I will try to capture as much of it as I can!!!

See you then.  Sending much love to everyone.

xoxo