We've already moved on after a terrific time in Simferopol but wanted to post these market pictures. Above, one of the Korean salad vendors (I believe most of these vendors or their families originally came to the Soviet Union from North Korea to study). In addition to the carrot salad above, kimchee, tofu and other salads were all gorgously arrayed in her case.
Simferopol is the only place we've seen plov cooked at a market. It's a rice dish, a bit like paella in that it's cooked outside in a large flat pan, and is a food associated here with Crimean Tatars, a dish they brought back from their forced exile in Uzbekistan.
Shashlik, or shish kebabs, is associated with picnics and outdoor eating all over Ukraine. But here in Simferopol was the only market where we've seen little outdoor restaurants for shashlik in the market.
The shashlik vendors here had long, narrow, specially-constructed charcoal grills, exactly the width of the skewer. Easy to cook!
This young girl was working at her family's shashlik stand.
Red chilis--not as common a sight in more northern markets. Also in Simferopol, because it's on a peninsula surrounded by the sea, there seemed to be many more fish vendors, selling a wide variety of fish, both fresh and smoked or dried.
And of course, what would any market be without fresh fruit or vegetable sellers. Here, we buy beautiful fresh, fragrant basil.
Overall, the market somehow seemed to have a more southern feel, more outdoors in some way.
Coming up in our next market report: Odessa. Stay tuned!
The first photo of the lady in Simferopol looks exactly like the lady we bought our salads from! My wife is from Simferopol and we went to the central market a lot. I loved the Tatarski and Uzbeki foods!
ReplyDeleteIn fact, here's my blog post on the Markets in Simferopol. You'll see the same lady. She was very nice and always gave us a little extra salads to sample.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.adoptrita.org/2011/08/23/the-markets/