By Sharmini Jayawardena
Wet markets and real market places like farmers markets, as in the physical existence of them, are a great indicator of the pulse of places and that of the people who live there.
I was completely smitten by the variety of stalls and the produce and other items that were on display, so beautifully arranged at that, in and around the main market building of Queen Victoria Market, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Queen St, Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia
The facade of the building
I bought myself a great CD 💿 by Inka Marka, who were performing right outside the market.
Just look at the way people are enjoying the music 🎶 🎼 🎵 produced by these two poncho clad musicians.
The poses they adopt and lapse in to are unmistakable. A great study for a painter capturing the impressions with brush or for a writer scratching away at writing it down on paper, or thumbing away on a phone!
On the outer periphery of the market building, you get these beautiful flower shops and vaudeville, inspired masquerade masks and such supplies and a plethora of other vendors airing their wares in the thoroughfares* 😊, as it were.
Just take a look at the inner vestiges of this very organically arranged and created market which displays almost everything you ever needed for the preparation of those gourmet as well as for the fine dinning fare, to perfection. For those who indulge in molecular gastronomy, (which term, btw, is decried by certain chefs, even Michelin Star chefs), the Queen Victoria Market is the go to place.
Everything from sea food to speciality cuts 🍖 🥩, to cheeses 🧀, to breads and wild meats are to be found here. The delicatessens are teeming with cold meats and delicious looking varieties of specially cured and created products.
It’s beyond belief how generations in the family businesses have served the community through the years.
With everybody clamoring to this iconic market, it’s stalls that sell produce are numerous and breathtaking.
Just as you are about to leave it’s portals, laden with all that you ever needed to stock up your refrigerator with, for that gracious dinner you are prepping ahead for, or just for those delightful family meals you want to prepare, you are beckoned to savour yet another aspect of the market, that being, more fanfare and entertainment for you to bask in!
Now you are finally leaving the main market building and there’s yet more to entice you with.
For lunch, I had a delicious Greek sandwich from opposite this beautiful stall
My other purchases were some much longed for handmade fairy 🧚♂️ 🧚♀️ accessories and a bar of delicately handmade coconut soap.
*Brought to mind by – “For arrogance and hatred are wares/Peddled in the thoroughfares” – the final lines from W. B. Yates’s poem, A Prayer for my Daughter.
