I wonder what happened to wander girl...: I know the Market! The Salcedo Market that is...

I have something to admit, I have a love affair with Makati... in other words Makati is my lover and the South is my husband :) Weekdays, I live in Makati but weekends are for the South (since I live here). And since I should exert some effort in getting myself familiar with Makati, I went to the market.

Yes it's true I have been playing in the market... I'm familiar with the Stock Market but as much as I hate to admit it, I just knew of this Market last Saturday...

A friend of mine, Christina Hunt, has been telling me "What?? You're from Makati and you haven't visited any of the markets here?? You should go!!" So I decided to go to the Saturday Salcedo Market! For those who are not familiar with Makati, there are 2 villages in Makati: one is Salcedo (Saturday Market) and the other one's Legazpi (Sunday Market). I promise to visit the Legazpi Market next time... hehe BTW Christina Hunt's from the Legazpi side and I'm from the Salcedo side.

The Salcedo Community Market is located in Jaime Velasquez Park (between Leviste St. and Tordesillas St.) and is open every Saturday from 7 AM until 2 PM.

That Saturday morning, I decided not to eat any breakfast since I will be doing some food tasting the whole day. It was already 10 in the morning when I arrived at the market and there were a lot of people already. The demography consisted of yuppies (some still in their corporate/work attire), parents, yayas (with their list of things to buy), old people and even kids. It was a feast for my eyes...

There are stalls for food and drinks, plants, handicrafts ohhh and did I mention live seafood! hahahaha I didn't take too much pictures with my point and shoot cam since I was too happy with the market.. hahaha There were even stalls for streetfood (think bbq, isaw, kwek kwek, karioka, etc.) A chinese stall/wagon was also present selling dimsum, Spain was also present (paella was smelling oh so nice just a stall away). Vietnam was also present, the Thais were also there (you have to try the famous Pomelo Salad there), Korea was there, Japan was also there, the Middle East was there to represent with their famous kebabs and shawarma. The Italians were there with their pasta and cute desserts! And don't forget the Pinoys with their homemade delicacies (Ube, jams, etc.) Hahaha it was too much for me, I know I need to go back there!

Well the first thing I tried there was Mamiyaki's Pancake... I noticed a lot of people flocking around that stall so I had to check it out. I ordered for the Cream Cheese filling since it was their best seller! only for 15 pesos (could you imagine 15 pesos for breakfast! FTW)! it was a pancake sandwich served inside a brown bag :) You could choose to have 2 fillings only for the price of 18 pesos (you can choose from cheese, cream cheese, strawberry, peanut butter and hazelnut choco).

The next thing which I tried was the Takoyaki since it was just a couple of stalls away and I have been craving for Takoyaki the night before.

I was walking around under the heat of the sun, then I saw a little kid drinking his shake! I had to drink something! haha so I tried the Mango Shake from Juice It (I ordered for the Grande Size which is roughly the Venti size of Starbucks only for -55 pesos). So it was definitely a good buy!

Then my next stop was a Lasagna take out from La Cuisine Francaise - 300 pesos (good for 2-3 servings so the price was reasonable... plus a very nice French man was selling it together with his wife). It turns out that they started with the Salcedo Market first before putting up their own restaurant in Salcedo Village. It was nice that even though they already have a place of their own, they still participate in the Saturday Market. They were also nice enough to invite me to their restaurant for a review which I will do soon. Aside from pasta they also sell desserts such as pies, tarts, etc.

Then since my dad loves Ube, I decided to go to Nene's stall and saw that a couple of moms were buying Ube. I decided to try their Ube Free taste, and it didn't disappoint me. My dad finished half of the container for dessert that night :)

Here are a couple of pics from the market...