text: Off to the market – Keep it french
  This week's Romancing the home challenge is markets.
  I'm not a fan of shopping or of being in big shopping malls. So going to a market, drinking a glass of bubbly while strolling around and then stopping for a quick bite to eat, after being tantalised by all the amazing food stalls, works for me!
  Markets are a great place to catch up with friends, meet new people or just sit back and watch interesting types of people doing their day to day business.
  We recently went to the Sanlam handmade contemporary fair at Hyde Park Corner. With spectacular views from the rooftop terrace, through the purple cladded Jacaranda trees, we enjoyed a culinary journey and great shopping. See here for more info on the fair.
  Our first stop was the Graham Beck stall.
  Then we browsed through some more stalls.
  We had the best lamb and beef schwarma at the King Arabic Sandwich stall. Mine was loaded with hummus, filled with slaw, purple cabbage, onions, chargrilled aubergines, lamb and beef and then topped with pickles and a garlic sauce. It was jaw droppingly good!
  We learnt a few tricks at the beautifully decorated Ginifer Gin stall. I will tell you all about it in my blog next week… We tried the Pomegranate bitters and the Strawberry and black pepper bitters at home last night and were very happy with our purchase.
  After eating a churro dipped in caramel sauce from the very entertaining Mexican stall, we headed on over to Paul's homemade ice cream van to finish things off. I should have bought more of the delicious cinnamon and honey sugar cones to take home with us.
  My last purchase for our home was Rio Largo olive oil. I must admit though that the purchase was influenced more by the artwork on the canister than the taste, as we didn't even taste the sample of olive oil and bread they had on offer. Frans Groenewald's artwork is witty and irreverent and is often referred to as 'decotainment'. The prints, branded as Flambe in South Africa and Vespaghetti in Holland and Australia, are characterized by unusual word play, fresh colour usage and unique characters, such as Basil the chef and his free range chicken, Benedict.
  Ohh, and after trying some at home I can safely say the olive oil tastes great!
  One of the best things this market has to offer is the modern way of shopping, namely on-line shopping. I did not want to spend more money on the day, so I grabbed a business card from the Mungo stall. Next week I'll be placing my order for their Itawuli Flat-weave Towels for our bathroom, and a Provincial Stripe Tablecloth that I saw in their stall. Quite possibly some serviettes too…
  Check out my fellow Romancing the Home bloggers posts about their visit to a market:
  I would like to visit the Pretoria Boeremark next. It is famous for its farm fresh fruit and vegetables, the best muffins in town, freshly baked breads, jams, vetkoek and sosaties, pickled peppers, crisp samoosas, pretty cupcakes and nougat. If I can just get myself out of bed at 4am on a Saturday morning!
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