Chez Panisse eat your heart out!
Trip Start
Jun 10, 2006
1
16
32
Trip End
Jun 14, 2007
Alma Ata,
Kazakhstan
Thursday, November 2, 2006
I thought you'd all enjoy these bazaar photos. It's a reminder of how the market at the ferry building in San Francisco is all fluff! You can't find Champagne and fresh oysters here(maybe smoked oysters in a can, and maybe you can find Soviet Champanski) or a dry martini with a Neiman Ranch burger for 20 dollars. But, you can find fabulous Korean salads and you can only buy Kim chi(Chim chi here) here in the fall. You can get caviar here from the Caspian Sea. You can find awesome veggies but you're gonna pay 3 dollars each for avocado and limes for 1 dollar. So it's best to stick to the local food. I have to remind myself that it isn't California but things could be worse, much worse. The close proximity here to the southern regions of Central Asia, South Asia, and the middle east makes for the access to veggies, herbs, and spices that are good.
better than a downstairs display at Chez Panisse
Although, most Kazakhs don't seem to know what to do with many of the veggies and spices they sell to you. We purchased some ginger the other day and the girl selling them asked us what were we going to do with it! You can also buy any counterfeit shoe or any article of clothing here for pretty cheap. Sometimes this stuff looks pretty real and I imagine some of these articles of clothing fall off the boat or train somewhere in the world and end up here.
The bazaar is an assault on your senses. The smells of meat and blood mix with the smell of burning herbs. You can hear the blasting music of the latest Latino group?!?! For some reason Mana is very popular and so is Shakira with Wyclef Jean's latest song. I heard some Puerto Rican Reggaeton too! All of this is mixed in with Cetral Asian pop music that sounds often similar to Latino dance music from the 80's and early 90's. You can hear latin style rap music in Russian! This country is a trip! Anyhow, The photos are of the main hall of the Zelony bazaar not too far from my house. We do our shopping here once a week. The veggies are the cheapest and the best quality. We also come here for some of the best Uighur food for the price. The ladies are starting to get to know us at this restaurant. They've even ask us where we've been if we haven't had lunch there in a while! We usually sit down for noodles, and veggies with rice. I have an affliction, and that affliction is a deep addiction to dumplings and so I try and order them as much as possible. The dumplings in this restaurant are ok. I've had better one's in other places, but the service is good here and the other food is good too.
peace out.......
