Back to the Broadway Market

Today at long last I went shopping at the Broadway Market and the Clinton Bailey Market. And I made a decision:

Hereafter I am never shopping anywhere else!

The prices were great. The food was great. That and, I had fun. I did two drawings. One is up above, a quick ink sketch of some houses on Gibson Street. It is in ink so it can count for Inktober! I will finish it up tomorrow. Meanwhile ...

I cannot believe I ever left and started shopping at other places. 

It was kind of an accident that I wound up going back to my old ways. What happened was, today Howard wanted me to go looking for chestnuts. And so I thought, as used to think: Broadway Market! Clinton-Bailey Market!

I did not find any chestnuts, let us get that out of the way.

However! I did buy: a quart or so of Steuben grapes; four eggplants, a Savoy cabbage; a red cabbage; a basket of dent-and-scratch red and yellow bell peppers; a basket of use-them-or-lose-them summer squash; Cortland apples; Crispin apples; three small pumpkins and a big one; and a big bag of red onions, some of which I have already caramelized with bourbon and enjoyed with T-bone steaks.

The T-bone steaks came from the Broadway Market. They were something like $6 a pound. 

The market had a new façade I had never seen. It shows how long it had been since I had been there. Inside, however, it was the same as it always was -- minus, unfortunately, the vegetable stands, although I hold out hope. I do not know if they are gone for good or what. Perhaps they are not.

 You could shoot a cannon through the place.

That did not upset me because it was business as usual. I purchased a lamb roast; the steaks; and a pound of bacon at Camellia. I enjoyed the meat counter, with things like Hog's Maws and Pig's Feet.

The prices for everything were way less than I was used to paying. I celebrated my savings by splurging on wasabi olive oil. There is an olive oil stand at the market that I love. It is next to the spice stand. I have to take inventory before I shop at the spice stand. One thing is for certain, though, I will be shopping at that spice stand.

I will be back next week.

And every week!

The whole fish ...

... all the fish, and nothing but the fish, so help me God!

Yesterday I went to the Broadway Market and was drawn as if by a magnet to Broadway Seafood. I bought a Pompano -- that is the fellow up above -- and a Bluefish. The whole fish! They scale it for you and everything. And they were going to take the heads off but I said no. And they were going to take the tail fins off and I said no.

They know me so they just smiled. They do not speak a lot of English anyway, do the folks at Broadway Seafood.

Last night we cooked up these fish. Yum! You do not realize how easy it is to cook whole fish. None of my cooking magazines will go near it and so I found a recipe from Mark Bittman, the Minimalist. You turn the oven to 400 degrees and wrap the fish in foil with some, ahem, aromatics. I used red onion rings and lemon slices and kosher salt and black pepper. And toasted walnuts, which Bittman suggested. Well, he asked for pine nuts. Whenever I see the words "pine nuts" I do not even see them. I just think walnuts.

I also roasted some mushrooms and asparagus. Everything went into the oven and came out perfect.

Triumph! I make a lot of mistakes but sometimes everything turns out great. This fish was amazing. As was the asparagus.

How come stuff never looks like this when you have your friends over? That is what I would like to know. It is just you, or it is just the two of you, and things look right out of Martha Stewart. I remember thinking that in California when Leonard Pennario came over for dinner. The dinner was good but not as good as dinner had been the night before when I was just cooking for myself. Maybe you just try too hard sometimes. I do not know what it is.

Well, I know one thing. I will be going back to Broadway Seafood!

I want to cook my way through their fish!

The whole fish, all the fish.

And nothing but the fish!

Sprout and about

Remember the Sprout Garden? Sure you do.

It was only three and a half years ago!

Spring being a little late this year I got out the Sprout Garden and filled it up the other day. I did a tray of lentils and two trays of mung beans. All these sprout hippies always mention mung beans and I had never seen them but I found them a couple of weeks ago at the Broadway Market. This Middle Eastern seller was selling them. They were only about a dollar, good thing because you know what? They did not sprout.

Not even with my loving tending and letting them listen to Leonard Pennario. Music is supposed to be good for plants. But although the lentils did well, the mung beans just sat there. And while the lentils smelled like perfume, the mung beans just smelled as if they were getting old.

So I dumped them and now I have just lentil sprouts. It is fun to have something growing in your kitchen that is supposed to be growing in your kitchen, you know? Later I learned that split peas do not sprout, that anything split does not sprout, and I believe these mung beans were split. They looked like yellow split peas.

I will get wiser on this subject.

Right now I am still a beginner. Like the Little Green Sprout in the picture up above. Hahaaa. It is funny how retro it is, that picture. I remember the Jolly Green Giant and the Little Green Sprout from when I was a kid.

It was also funny reading back on buying my Sprout Garden. I had forgotten how my mother was disapproving because she thought I should be knocking a quarter off the price. I can't believe all the things I bought with my mom at garage sales. I had forgotten the Sprout Garden was one of them.

See, this is why people keep journals and Weblogs.

To keep the memories green!

My favorite butcher

Today I think I will stop by the Broadway Market. I do a lot of my food shopping there, and I hear that my favorite butcher, Beverly, is back. She used to work at Malczewski's but recently she was nabbed, apparently, by headhunters working for Camellia's. Up until last week she was at the Camellia's on Genesee but now, rumor has it she is at the Camellia's stand at the Broadway Market.

Everyone should be able to toss around the phrase "my favorite butcher." I am glad that here in Buffalo we have that privilege.

When I go to the Broadway Market I will be trailed by law enforcement throughout the country. That is because I am the tester for Howard's covert GPS vehicle tracking business, www.FollowThatCar.com. Cops (including those Detroit DEA NARC guys on the reality TV show) follow my car everywhere, which means they track me regularly to the Broadway Market. I am reminded of this when I get the inevitable call from Howard: "I see you're at the market. Can you pick me up some bacon?"

The big question then: Malczewski's or Camellia's?

I love both places. Come to think of it, Jim Malczewski is also in the running for the My Favorite Butcher award. He is so handsome. Oh. Remember Rick, this other butcher? He used to work at the sausage place where Camellia's is now. The saga with Rick was so funny and odd. All of a sudden his personality just changed. He came out, is what happened. After years selling sausages, Rick realized he was gay.

The funny thing was how it happened overnight. One week, Rick was just this regular guy, telling you in a normal voice, "Yeah, I got these pork chops here on special." The next, he was this drama queen. "Look at these beautiful sausages..." And he was joyously telling us about his transformation.

Then, next thing we knew, he was gone. Poof. Like that. He got another job somewhere, we were told. We missed him. Probably now he is dancing nude in Vegas. I heard about one nude male revue in Vegas called -- a title I love -- "Thunder Down Under." I am guessing that is where he is. Think of it, he could have his own shtick. He could be the butcher, selling sausages, when suddenly ... but now I am getting naughty. I will stop. All I will say is I hope Rick is happy, wherever he is. We loved him.

Wasn't that fun? Gossip like that keeps the Broadway Market interesting.

They should put me on the board. I would make the place successful.