Went to the St. George’s Market on a beautiful sunny Friday. Built in the 1800’s, it was recently voted the third best market in the UK (the best being the Borough Market in London). The hall housing this market plays host to all kinds of stalls hawking crafts and antiques, vegetables, baked goods, cured and fresh meats, fish, local cheeses and there’s even a creperie.

My love of markets stems back to the weekly ritual my family used to have when I was a kid. Every Sunday morning, the whole family would pack into the car and head off to the local market to stock up on fruit and vegetables. My dad loves a bargain – why buy two apples when you can get a whole box for a cheaper price per apple? While my parents did the purchasing, my sister and I would needle them for snacks being sold from nearby stalls – little coconut pancakes and deep fried savoury donuts – or cheap plastic gadgets from the toy stalls.

The Good Living Growers Market in Sydney is currently one of my favourite markets, but we never seem to make it there on a regular basis because it closes a little too early for those of us who like a sleep-in on weekends. Thankfully the St George’s Market here in Belfast only shuts down at 1pm. We came here for some items for dinner, and went away with a bag of waxy potatoes, a wedge of cheddar and some salmon. Meanwhile, we also salivated over the pastries, sampled a few cheeses, and pondered the large eel cutlets. A great way to spend the morning!

St. George’s Market
12-21 East Bridge Street,
Belfast.
Fridays 6am-1pm; Saturdays 8am-1pm

I remember Sawers Delicatessen from a couple of years ago as the place where I bought my first tub of Cherry Garcia. They don’t seem to stock Ben & Jerry’s anymore (there’s a B&J kiosk in Castle Court anyway) – instead, the freezer section is now overflowing with all kinds of interesting fauna – including whole rattlesnakes, at £79 a pack! Are they the ones who didn’t make the grade during the casting call? If I ever feel curious enough to make a purchase, I’ve already found some instructions on how to prepare them. It begins amusingly enough with the words, “Take dead rattlesnake…”, which also makes for an the ideal introduction to a spanish Hannah Glasse tome.

Snakes aside, this deli is like a little cave stuffed full of goodies. I like a place that sends dinner ideas buzzing into your head the minute you step inside. I’ve already got my eye on the pieces of salt cod, for making brandade, and if we don’t make it to the markets on friday, we just might have to come back for a wedge or two of cheese.

Sawers Delicatessen
7 Fountain Centre
College Street
Belfast
BT1 6ET

Too many hours on a cramped plane later, we have finally made it to Belfast to visit Barry’s parents. Flyin’ ain’t one of my favourite things to do, but it’s a means to an end, so some of us suffer through it with lots of fidgeting about in their miniscule seats, trying to watch the movies available or nibble the hot food provided – a passable chicken curry and coconut rice, in one case.

Due to increased security, there’s a whole new bunch of stuff that you can’t take on board. Apart from the standard 2 lt. bottle of bleach, cigarette lighters or knitting needles, you now can’t take face cream, liquid eye liner, bottled water etc. At one point, while in the middle of 2 1/2 hours worth of queueing, we walked past a desk with a collection of things that had just been confisticated from checking-in passengers – it was overflowing with lots of little lip balms, tubes of sun tan lotion (probably bought on the way out of the country, because who would need sun tan lotion while in the UK?), and a single bottle of vodka.

Anyway, we’ve only been here two days and it has already rained at least five times. That would explain why everything is such a vibrant green colour. I took some photos of the family backyard yesterday, and today, we visited a nearby Tesco supermarket to stock up on some things – mostly bad, bad, bad junk food – that you can’t get back home. We got back just before it started to rain again, and settled down with cups of hot tea and the smell of baking chocolate cake wafting from B’s mom’s kitchen. What’s not to like about being here!