Heart Of The City Farmers Market

After dropping off my rental car, I roamed the civic center area before watching a show at the orpheum. I kept seeing people with shopping bags of produce so I figured there was a big grocery store around. Then I came upon this farmers market. Yes, it is smack dab in the heart of the city.
A variety of green squash type things and eggplant and such. You know, veggies.Potatoes of all colors!
And fruit too, here we have persimmons. I've never seen persimmons in a farmers market before. It's hard finding these in grocery stores even!
They have normal fruit too, like berries, berries, and more berries.
A table full of grapes! And a smiley posing vendor!
Cage free eggs!
Seafood too. Although I'm not sure I'd be brave enough to pick up fish at a farmers market. Am I that trusting?
And flowers too!
Along with the farmers market, there were tons of food carts. What a lovely thing to have in the middle of a busy city!

Lunch In Zurich

I hopped a train back to Zurich to spend the day there before heading back to Dublin. Zurich is super cute too, but much bigger. I walked tons that day, but never really made my way out of a tiny area of town. Let me tell you a little something about Switzerland. Damn, it be expensive people. Like it doesn't make sense to me kind of expensive. But that's just the way it is. The grocery prices are just somewhat expensive, but prepared food is just horrifically overpriced.

And here's another horrible thing about eating in Switzerland. You can smoke in restaurants. Like 99% of them. And people just do it. All the time. Morning, noon, and night. Coming from Philadelphia, and having just come from Dublin, both cities which are smoke-free, it was such a strange reminder of the past. So finding places to eat that aren't smoky can be extremely difficult.
Most department stores have a dining hall. They tend to be very popular because they are somewhat affordable. Well, relatively affordable, for switzerland prices. And they're smoke-free. So I decided to check one out for my one lunch in Zurich. They had hot meals but my body was hankering for some veggies. So I got this little thing of salad. This is considered a medium salad in switzerland. I got all kinds of random stuff and quite enjoyed it. Yes, those are beets. You're looking at a beet lover. The green drink you see is freshly squeezed kiwi juice. Not quite sweet enough, but still great! And don't even think about asking how much this meal cost. Much more than you would think. But I consider it cheap here!
It was still cold this day. It was also raining. And then all of a sudden, it turned to hail! Yes, hail! I ended up walking back to the hotel in the middle of a hailstorm. Check em out! I watched it fall from my hotel room...

Breakfast At The Basel Marktplatz

Basel is so freakin cute. Like seriously cute. As far as Europe goes, I haven't seen much of it, but it's definitely up there on the cute scale. Like postcard cute. And it's quite a manageable little city. Quite walkable, trams take you everywhere, and it's nice to look at.
Every morning at the Marktplatz, there is an open air market where locals hawk their food wares. Like these beautiful veggies.
More veggies. I think.
Olives, my nemesis, and some cured meats.
More of my little enemies.
Fresh stuffed pastas!
Laugenbread. Looks just like challah, huh?
Fruits and nuts.
Strange berries. There are blackberries and blueberries, but there are some blue and red ones that I am not familiar with.
Who wouldn't want to buy fresh foods at a place this picturesque?
On this morning I got a delicious little latte from that adorable cart and a special crepe made with grapes. I had to wait awhile for this crepe, as the lone crepemaker had taken a break, but unfortunately, it was kind of awful. It was just super sweet and mushy. But that's ok, I forgive for the surroundings.

Food Shopping In Germany

So I walked to Germany (yes, it's that close), and decided to check out the food shopping there too. The Rhein Center happened to have this giant Marktkauf store in it. Let's explore! I was impressed by the Swiss yogurt selections, but this one is even more freakishly vast. And they have giant sized tubs here. Oh look, the best of the wursts... They too are fans of tube technology. Here, we see tomato paste concentrate in tubes. Ketchup and mayo in a tube. I'm not sure how I feel about this. In addition to tube technology, Germans love packet technology. There are aisles and aisles of packeted foods. In no other country will you see so many purple foods sold. Apparently, McDonalds sells ketchup in Germany. These greens look sickeningly amazing. Um... someone tell me what this giant pointy freak cabbage thingy is... Even more cheese than in the Swiss grocery. It's too much! But then you look at the giant aisle simply dedicated to butters and spreads. Seriously, it's frightening. They also like to put their veggies in jars here. Cans are popular too, but you'll see many more jars than in the US. I wonder why that is? And you can bet your on-time German trains that they're already selling christmas stuff. Oh dear. Prices are quite reasonable. And the depth and breadth of the offerings here were quite impressive. The germans do their grocery super stores quite well!

Food Shopping In Basel

So the main grocery stores in Switzerland seem to be Migros and Coop. They come in different varieties and sizes. Switzerland has some convenience stores as well, but they're pretty small. These full grocery stores are a nice size though. Their yogurt aisle shames the US in comparison.
They also have much more sophisticated food tube technology. I believe these are mayonnaise in tubes.
Their pasta seems to prefer coming in bags, instead of boxes.
And they're fans of non-refrigerated milk.
And it is Switzerland people, so the chocolate selection is ridiculous.
Along with their cheese selections.
Chip flavors include paprika, curry oriental, and mexican.
The laugenbread that I had on the plane! It's delicious!
Oh, and you can get socks too.

Food Shopping In Dublin

What's food shopping like in Dublin? I set to find out. There are little convenience type stores all over the place. Like this SPAR. I think they're open pretty much all the time.
Or this Centra. These convenience stores all carry staple groceries, as well as lots of prepared foods.
But let's explore this proper grocery store called Superquinn. If you look real hard, you can see the "Cheesemonger" sign!
The Irish love their sparkling waters.
In Ireland, Uncle Ben makes asian sauces. Does he do this in the US? No idea.
These strawberries look amazing. Strawberries in the US look gross compared to these adorable little beauties.
It is Ireland people... there are plenty of potatoes to be found.
Here's some bread just sitting around. This would never happen in the US.
Some pies just sitting around too, without covers. Again, you would never see this at home.
Hee.
Brown sauce! You know it's the UK now!
These eggs are just sitting on a shelf. And not refrigerated. Again, you never see this in the states. Food prices aren't too crazy here. But you have to remember it's the Euro. It's the restaurants that tend to be on the expensive side. And oh, you have to pay for bags.