Market Pictures

[goodsamaritan]

Post your market pictures here.
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Me and a maid went to Farmers' Market in Cubao, EDSA, Quezon City.

First one of the entrances to the covered market.

A couple of market stalls selling beef entrails / internal organs / tails / tongue.

Market stalls selling beef muscle and bone.

I bought from these 2 guys hamming it up posing for the camera.  I chose their beef today because they had the deepest yellow and large amount of fat.  Look at those rib cuts all yellow fat.  I bought 2 kilos of fatty ribs and 3 kilos of sirloin.

And finally, the beef at the table.  Am experimenting with sashimi cuts so the children can eat the beef with chopsticks by themselves.  They've gotten spoiled with me cutting it up for them while they eat.  I had the cook slice up sashimi sizes.

[Raw Kyle]

Beautiful. Did you ask them to pose like that?

[goodsamaritan]

Beautiful. Did you ask them to pose like that?

I just asked them to pose with their knives.
They're happy butchers.

[wodgina]

Hey you are spoilt!

I'm guessing health regulations are more relaxed in the Philippines no refrigeration! you know raw meat contains killer bacteria?

I'm  thinking about going on a surfing holiday to Bali but I'm not to sure about being able to find meat and pemmican looks like hashish so I would like to avoid bringing that in. Anyone been to Bali? Philipines is looking like an option now

[goodsamaritan]

Hey you are spoilt!

I'm guessing health regulations are more relaxed in the Philippines no refrigeration! you know raw meat contains killer bacteria?

The beef just got slaughtered around 12 midnight, it arrives around 3-4am, cut up and hung 5am.  It doesn't need refrigeration.
I think after displaying for 24 hours they put the leftovers in the freezer and they get sold elsewhere, but not in this market.

I'm  thinking about going on a surfing holiday to Bali but I'm not to sure about being able to find meat and pemmican looks like hashish so I would like to avoid bringing that in. Anyone been to Bali? Philipines is looking like an option now

I've been to Bali, long time ago, early 1990s.  Exposure to Hindu stuff when most of Indonesia is Muslim.

Try Siargao Island in the Philippines for surfing
http://www.surigaoislands.com/siargao_island.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPXt3rDT9xc

[PaleoPhil]

I just asked them to pose with their knives.
They're happy butchers.

Haha, I love that photo, thanks. Have you ever noticed how butchers and fishmongers tend to be happier people than bakers? Granted, I haven't known enough to make it a scientifically valid sample, but it is interesting.

And you are indeed lucky that in your country people are not so obsessed with germs like they are here in the States, so you get to have old world style open air meat markets. Many Americans would be disgusted by that--it's a shame.

Woodgina, couldn't you UPS-ship the pemmican before you go? Course, you'd need someone to agree to receive it for you at the other end. Maybe hotels provide this service for a fee?

[Josh]

That meat looks delicious. Never seen fat that yellow here. Looks like the meat is quite fatty as well?

I like the chopsticks as well...will remember that if I need to take a packed lunch and look normal

[goodsamaritan]

Come on guys, post your market pictures.
Am interested to see what it's like in your markets.

[PaleoPhil]

OK, but it's pretty boring:



Notice how awfully sanitized American farmers markets like this one are? He's only got a few samples of meat out--which are plastic-wrappred, BTW--and the rest is hidden away. "Oh no, wouldn't want any bacteria-laden air touching the chicken. Heaven forbid!" From several angles at a distance, you might not even know that anyone was selling food at this market.

Hey Goodsamaritan, do you ever get Americans at the market saying things like "Yuck! The air is touching that meat!"? LOL

Here's an overview of the market indoors during winter:


The US may well be one of the most anal nations on the planet.  But we are gradually learning from the Europeans, thank heavens.

The prices of grassfed beef are actually cheaper in the health food stores, so there's not much point in going to the farmers' market. I've read so many posts over the years about wonderful farmers markets, but I've been to farmers' markets in Boston, Watertown, NY, Florida, St Albans, VT, and Burlington, VT, and the unadulterated food goods have tended to be either pricey, low quality or nonexistent. Most of the stuff sold at some are useless trinkets and other junk. Who else other than GoodSamaritan has a good one?

Only thing more depressing than an American farmers market is going to a Pow-wow and seeing our unfortunate Native American brothers and sisters with big bellies and myopia acquired from eating modern foods, selling fry bread made from those foods that the white government forced them to eat when it took away their hunting lands and weapons and put them on reservations, and calling it "traditional Indian fry bread." At least one Seminole pow wow had alligator meat--but as I recall, even that was dipped in bread crumbs and fried in vegetable fat.

/end rant

[goodsamaritan]

Here are a couple of market pictures during my trip to the fishing town of Catbalogan in Samar province.

[Raw Kyle]

If I ever hit up the Reading Terminal Market or Hendricks Farm (the closest two organic/grassfed markets around) I might take some pictures. Most of the meat is frozen though and all is refrigerated. But it would be an interesting comparison.

[PaleoPhil]

I stopped by the St. Albans, Vermont farmers' market today and there were no meats at all. There were just a couple handfulls of vegetables at one of the stalls. Mostly trinkets, baked goods, maple syrup and honey. Rather similar to most small-town farmers' I've seen in the Northeast. Sickening. I've yet to witness a worthwhile farmer's market.

[TylerDurden]

I stopped by the St. Albans, Vermont farmers' market today and there were no meats at all. There were just a couple handfulls of vegetables at one of the stalls. Mostly trinkets, baked goods, maple syrup and honey. Rather similar to most small-town farmers' I've seen in the Northeast. Sickening. I've yet to witness a worthwhile farmer's market.

This is most odd. Nina Planck claimed to have been brought up along with Vermont farmers' markets and later  exported the whole idea to the UK and encouraged the growth of the London Farmers' Markets Association which now provides me with multiple sources of high-quality raw meats including wild game meats. Without her, my life would be miserable as I'd have had to spend extra hours hunting up organic food-sources re expensive direct delivery from farms. I view her as a saint. Perhaps she knew of other farmers' markets in the Northeast which were of a higher standard re variety.

[PaleoPhil]

This is most odd. Nina Planck claimed to have been brought up along with Vermont farmers' markets and later  exported the whole idea to the UK and encouraged the growth of the London Farmers' Markets Association which now provides me with multiple sources of high-quality raw meats including wild game meats. Without her, my life would be miserable as I'd have had to spend extra hours hunting up organic food-sources re expensive direct delivery from farms. I view her as a saint. Perhaps she knew of other farmers' markets in the Northeats which were of a higher standard re variety.

That is strange indeed. I found a Website for a Nina Planck (http://ninaplanck.com/index.php?page=about) and she claims to have been born in Buffalo, NY, raised in Virginia, and to currently live in Greenwich Village, NYC. No mention of Vermont or New England. Is this the same Nina Planck?

She says that she was "Tempted by England’s finest producers of roast beef and raw milk cheddar, Nina wondered about the advice most Americans get about diet. After a few dutiful— and unhealthy—years in the vegan, vegetarian, and non-fat wilderness, she came home to real food, and she explains why in Real Food." So instead of her bringing quality pasture-fed meats to London, it appears London's quality meats convinced her that meat was OK to eat.

Here again, Planck claims it was England (London) that convinced her to try "real food" and save her health: http://www.feelgoodeats.com/whole-foods-information/feelgood-bookshelf-real-food-by-nina-planck.html. So even though she brought "farmer's markets" to London, London convinced her that eating meats was OK if they were higher quality than what was available back in the states. Unfortunately, most of the healthy eating crowd in the Northeastern US still hold to the views she had when she grew up in Buffalo, NY and Virginia--that vegetarianism is best, and that organic whole-grain cookies sold at farmer's markets are "healthier" than the grassfed meats sold in a few health food stores or directly by the farmers or over the Internet. I care less about whether a food is organic than that it is meat or animal fat and was raised on biologically appropriate foods.

Here are some of the links where her site led me for foods like what she claims she buys:

> www.LocalHarvest.org, which I was familiar with, lists the Burlington, VT Farmer's Market as one of the top rated (I've been to that market and I've provided photos above that reveal it's nowhere near as good as those in the Phillippines or other Old World-style markets). Here is one of the reviews: "Amazing local food, including a very good choice of prepared foods."  PREPARED foods? What the hell? If I wanted prepared foods I could go to the supermarket.

One of the few meat vendors at the Burlington Farmer's Market, Jericho Settlers Farm, boasts of how they are "grilling breakfast sandwiches (pork sausage, egg, VT cheddar cheese on a muffin) and 100% grassfed hamburgers."  Whoopee! So I can go to the so-called "Farmer's Market" and buy a grilled grassfed hamburger or go to my local health food market and get raw grassfed ground beef for less money, and it costs less than the small amounts of raw ground beef sold at the Farmer's market, and I can get most of my other shopping needs done at the health food market. Which do you think I'm going to do?

> http://www.foodroutes.org/story.jsp?id=1493 This site pushes veggies and instead of directing where to get pasture-fed meats, and criticizes meat eating, as here: "When the pig is slaughtered, at about 5 months of age, he'll become sausage or bacon that will sell cheap, feeding an American addiction to meat that has contributed to an obesity epidemic currently afflicting more than two-thirds of the population.

> www.eatwild.com, which I was also familiar with, lists Back Beyond Farm, which states: "Our pigs are not fed ... meat or meat byproducts."  WTH? Why not? In addition to plants, the diet of wild pigs includes "mice, birds eggs, snakes, lizards, worms, beetles and centipedes and carrion" (http://www.britishwildboar.org.uk/profile.html).

Verdict: the local health food markets here are far superior to any farmer's market I've seen in this country. The farmer's markets I've seen tend to sell lots of trinkets and tourist crap, baked goods, honey and/or maple sugar products, kettle popcorn and maybe some burgers, along with a smattering of fruits and vegetables and one or two meat offerings--and many sell no meats at all. They seem more designed for tourists than for locals. I have no idea why anyone in the US would claim claim that farmer's markets are a great source of healthy foods--especially when it comes to grass-fed beef and suet and meats from older types of livestock like bison and deer. I've yet to see one example of this. However, I think our standards in this forum are far higher than those of most people, who have no idea what real food is.

I hope for your sake, Tyler, that London's farmer's markets are more like the markets in the Philippines than in Vermont.

[TylerDurden]

You're right, my  mistake, it was Virginia not Vermont. But , to be honest, before Nina Planck set up the first of many London (semi-organic) Farmers' Markets, there was very little choice here in London - about all I could do was visit some specialist (incredibly expensive) wild game butchers or order organic/100% grassfed beef or lamb direct from farms at very high prices(and with most of the offal not being allowed by the farms to be sold). True, there were a few fishmongers around, but of rather low quality with lots of (farmed) salmon and not much else. Oh and I had shockingly expensive tourist traps like Borough Market which caters to tourists on a massive scale, selling those prepared foods you talk about plus a few occasional rare-to-find (and very highly priced) tidbits like raw sharkmeat.

The current farmers' market I visit here in London is incredible by contrast. There's one stall selling (inferior grainfed) turkey and other fowl but sells wild hare carcasses. Another stall sells wildcaught seafood of exceptionally high quality and size, then there's one 100% grassfed meat stall, plus a wild venison stall, some fruit-selling stalls(near-organic) and so on and so forth, with seasonal options such as duck eggs/goose eggs etc.. Now, granted, 1 of the stalls(another seafood stall) is incredibly overpriced, but this is made up for by an incredibly cheap stall selling grassfed lamb/mutton/wild mallard duck/partridge etc.. Other than the 10 or so  meat/fish stalls, there's the usual organic bread stalls, 1 honey stall(I get raw honeycomb from them sometimes), some selling cider(incredibly, without sulphites in some cases!). It's an amazing place and significantly cheaper than any other equivalent. I mean, if one compares the prices at such London farmers' markets to , say, the ghastly UK branch of WholeFoods or the organic healthfood stores in the UK(which only sell raw organic fruit and organic but highly processed meats), there's a huge disparity, with me paying at the very, very most half as much at the farmers' markets as I would anywhere else.Other than price, the reason why these farmers' markets have flourished while standard markets haven't all done so well, is because the standards are deliberately kept as high as possible and also because the organisers make sure to mainly offer foods which are unavailable in the supermarkets. It all works well, the farmers benefit as they can sell their foods at much higher prices than they would ever get from the greedy supermarkets as they sell directly to the consumer, and the customer benefits by getting far higher quality than at a supermarket, while also getting cheaper prices than at a supermarket(supermarkets are astonishingly expensive, despite superficial appearances re low-cost promotions).

I agree that GS seems to have the best choices available to him re farmers' markets. This is partly because things are not so tightly controlled in the developing world - most food-producers in the West are hamstrung by endless regulations(such as this absurd request by NorthStar Bison that people have a prescription when asking for raw thyroid), and there's also a real hatred for enterprises which don't rip off the public(and therefore don't generate as much tax for the government). Here in the UK,for example, there was an incredibly aggressive move made recently by the local council to have my favourite farmers' market moved to another(far inferior) location as they wanted to replace the car-park the market usually resides in, with some major new building(some sort of supermarket store). Fortunately, aggressive lobbying by locals who use the market was able to put a stop to this. But I was very worried for a time.

[PaleoPhil]

The current farmers' market I visit here in London is incredible by contrast. There's one stall selling (inferior grainfed) turkey and other fowl but sells wild hare carcasses. Another stall sells wildcaught seafood of exceptionally high quality and size, then there's one 100% grassfed meat stall, plus a wild venison stall, some fruit-selling stalls(near-organic) and so on and so forth, with seasonal options such as duck eggs/goose eggs etc..

That is far superior to any farmers' market I've seen or read about in this country (though I've only visited about half a dozen and read about another dozen or so). It sounds like Planck was more successful in changing things in London than she has been here. You're lucky to have such excellent farmers' markets. Keep in mind when you recommend farmers' markets, that most Americans do not have access to ones as good as London's and our health food markets, including WholeFoods as well as local markets, tend to be far superior to most of the farmers' markets here when it comes to pasture-fed and wild meats and fats, eggs, etc., at least in the areas of Vermont, upstate NY, Florida and Boston that I've seen.

Here in the UK,for example, there was an incredibly aggressive move made recently by the local council to have my favourite farmers' market moved to another(far inferior) location as they wanted to replace the car-park the market usually resides in, with some major new building(some sort of supermarket store). Fortunately, aggressive lobbying by locals who use the market was able to put a stop to this. But I was very worried for a time.

I think this helps explain the superiority of the London farmers' market--Americans are much more attached to automobiles and suburban supermarkets with big, free parking lots than they are to downtown farmers' markets that lend themselves more to walking or taking public transportation. Farmers' markets are an Old World way of doing things that Americans largely abandoned decades ago and the remnants are more tourist curiosity than vibrant market like is apparent in the Philippines.

[TylerDurden]

That is far superior to any farmers' market I've seen or read about in this country (though I've only visited about half a dozen and read about another dozen or so). It sounds like Planck was more successful in changing things in London than she has been here. You're lucky to have such excellent farmers' markets. Keep in mind when you recommend farmers' markets, that most Americans do not have access to ones as good as London's and our health food markets, including WholeFoods as well as local markets, tend to be far superior to most of the farmers' markets here when it comes to pasture-fed and wild meats and fats, eggs, etc., at least in the areas of Vermont, upstate NY, Florida and Boston that I've seen.

From what I've read, most Americans , like me, find the WholeFoods chain to be far too expensive(that's why they call it "WholePaycheck".As for farmers' markets, I have frequently come across Americans complaining of low-grade farmers' markets(at least along the East Coast) and have mentioned that from time to time  but for most other countries, farmers' markets are much cheaper and of higher quality than healthstores and more common(not many healthfood stores in southern or eastern europe, for example). Plus, while the organic food movement is well underway in the US , most other countries are far behind, so that farmers' markets are often the only place one can easily find non-intensively-farmed meats.

Farmers' markets are an Old World way of doing things that Americans largely abandoned decades ago and the remnants are more tourist curiosity than vibrant market like is apparent in the Philippines.

Don't you still have good ethnic markets around(eg:- Chinese/Vietnamese etc.)? I've heard that some immigrant communities might have such markets around so as to get old foodstuffs from their original country that are not available in the US. 

[PaleoPhil]

From what I've read, most Americans , like me, find the WholeFoods chain to be far too expensive(that's why they call it "WholePaycheck".

Yeah, but their alternative is usually standard supermarkets which don't sell pasture-fed meats. They would also say that the health food markets that I shop at are expensive too. I'm not ready to buy in bulk yet, and even bulk pasture-fed meat prices (such as via Slanker's or a local farmer) would be considered way too expensive to most Americans. Americans seem to value cheapness more and quality less than Europeans. I think that's one reason why European health tends to be better than American health, on avg.

As for farmers' markets, I have frequently come across Americans complaining of low-grade farmers' markets(at least along the East Coast) and have mentioned that from time to time  but for most other countries, farmers' markets are much cheaper and of higher quality than healthstores and more common(not many healthfood stores in southern or eastern europe, for example).

OK, thanks. I think it's important to point out the regional differences, because the picture of farmers' markets that I got from the Internet was vastly different from what I actually encountered when I visited them in this country. The proponents must have been talking about those in areas where they are quite good, such as London and the Philippines.

Plus, while the organic food movement is well underway in the US ,

I think this is where some of the confusion occurs. Many people (I don't mean you) seem to equate organic with optimally healthy and high-quality. As I've mentioned several times before, I care much less about organic, which often means cattle and chickens fed organic grains and soy that are not a biologically appropriate and balanced diet for them, than I do about biologically appropriate feed and free-range (which gives animals the chance to find biologically-appropriate foods on their own, such as chickens finding worms and insects). Organic is somewhat of a selling point for me, as it usually means no petrochemical fertilizers, antibiotics or hormones, but the label is not well defined in this country and it does not guarantee a good diet for the animals, so it's overemphasized, from my perspective.

Don't you still have good ethnic markets around(eg:- Chinese/Vietnamese etc.)? I've heard that some immigrant communities might have such markets around so as to get old foodstuffs from their original country that are not available in the US.  

Vermont is the whitest state in the Union, so we don't have a lot of "ethnic" markets. There are some ethnic stores and restaurants, but so far I haven't found any pasture-fed or wild meats in them in my area. The usual types of food that are thought of as "ethnic" around here at such places tend to involve grains and other plant foods and cooking, such as gyro sandwiches, pastries, rice dishes, fried fish, avocado, breadfruit, jams, spices, pickled items, etc. with maybe a few frozen, grain-fed meats in some ethnic stores. The only butcher I've found in the Burlington area sells only grain-fed lean meats. St. Albans city (and adjacent St. Albans town) doesn't have a single piece of 100% pasture-fed meat for sale within the entire city/town limits, although the farmstand reportedly sold some briefly once. There's only a small batch of frozen, mostly-pasture-fed lean meat in (once again) the local health food store.

[TylerDurden]

Yeah, but their alternative is usually standard supermarkets which don't sell pasture-fed meats. They would also say that the health food markets that I shop at are expensive too. I'm not ready to buy in bulk yet, and even bulk pasture-fed meat prices (such as via Slanker's or a local farmer) would be considered way too expensive to most Americans. Americans seem to value cheapness more and quality less than Europeans. I think that's one reason why European health tends to be better than American health, on avg.

You Americans have enormous advantages over Europeans. For one thing, I keep on noticing that the prices Americans pay for food and other goods are usually the same or as much as a third less  in numbers as UK prices - BUT when you take into account the fact that the UK pound sterling is worth  1.55 US Dollars, then one can see that US prices are considerably lower in value than UK ones.I suppose that's because the US is a much larger country so can depend more on economies of scale. Anyway, I was deeply envious of the incredibly low prices Lex got from Slankers' for example as only a few wild game items in the UK are ever that cheap.

I think this is where some of the confusion occurs. Many people (I don't mean you) seem to equate organic with optimally healthy and high-quality. As I've mentioned several times before, I care much less about organic, which often means cattle and chickens fed organic grains and soy that are not a biologically appropriate and balanced diet for them, than I do about biologically appropriate feed and free-range (which gives animals the chance to find biologically-appropriate foods on their own, such as chickens finding worms and insects). Organic is somewhat of a selling point for me, as it usually means no petrochemical fertilizers, antibiotics or hormones, but the label is not well defined in this country and it does not guarantee a good diet for the animals, so it's overemphasized, from my perspective.

I agree that organic is a dubious category given the grainfeeding etc. but it's a start. If there were no organic category, it would take us all much longer to find decent high quality foods and there would be much less incentive for farmers to avoid pesticide use etc.

[PaleoPhil]

You Americans have enormous advantages over Europeans. For one thing, I keep on noticing that the prices Americans pay for food and other goods are usually the same or as much as a thir dless  in numbers as UK prices - BUT when you take into account the fact that the UK pound sterling is worth  1.55 US Dollars, then one can see that US prices are considerably lower in value than UK ones.I suppose that's because the US is a much larger country so can depend more on economies of scale. Anyway, I was deeply envious of the incredibly low prices Lex got from Slankers' for example as only a few wild game items in the UK are ever that cheap.

Yeah, I know. Americans are so cheap when it comes to health they won't pay even the much lower prices for grassfed meats/fats that are available here. It's lucky for me, though, because it keeps my costs down.

Europeans seem to value health and quality of food, whereas Americans tend to value cheapness and quantitity. These are generalities with exceptions, of course, but I have observed them repeatedly. I used to be one of those cheap Americans. It was an Italian telling me "I don't skimp on food" that woke me up and first caused me to reconsider putting so much emphasis on cheapness and quantity of food.

[goodsamaritan]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFkm3N4uHFw

Video shows off my proximity to Farmer's Market in Cubao. I'm so dedicated to raw fresh food for myself and my family I decided to hold office beside my favorite wet market.

Go down the elevator and turn left, I'm in the market.
Flowers, fruits, vegetables, on the left side are hordes of sea food stalls and on the right are land animals.
The land animals you see being sold are goats, chicken, pork, beef and with all their ofal / internal organs.

In this video I buy more than a kilo of raw tuna and more than 3 kilos of beef, part of it for my lunch.

[carnivore]

Is the meat always from grassfed animals in Philippines ?

[goodsamaritan]

Is the meat always from grassfed animals in Philippines ?

Chicken - you must raise your own or relatives raise their own in their backyard

Pigs - the best ones eat leftover food from neighbors houses and are also free to roam.

Goats - always grass fed

The few sheep - always grass fed

Beef - small scale farmers always grass fed, big scale contract growers - feed lot shelter (beer waste husks so you get drunk cows) so the trick is to not buy the name branded beef, usually white colored fat.  The yellow fats beef taste good.

[cherimoya_kid]

oh man, I really would love some fresh unfrozen tuna.

[miles]

How come all that fat that I see is that nice soft-yellowish kind? Hardly any of my beef has that... What's the difference and its' cause?