Combining a love of food and the planet is the Earth Fair Food Market. The location is a bit obscure, tucked away behind Bathroom Bizarre in Tokai, but the locals are familiar with it and will quickly guide you in the right direction. The venue is bright, open and airy: perfectly emphasising its love of all that is natural and good and ideal for bad weather as it is completely indoors.
Like any good market, there is a great host of stalls from which to sample and buy food. What I love about Earth Fair is that despite the vast abundance of stalls, it is well laid-out, uncluttered and the crowds do not congest. As this is an Earth-friendly market, people are encouraged to bring their own shopping bags and mugs to avoid the unnecessary use of plastic bags and paper cups, which is something we should strive to do all the time.
Should you require a wake-up call, a good cup of coffee at Origin Coffee’s stall will invigorate you. For something a little stronger, a trip to The Laughing Crocodile is in order with a varied selection of beers and ciders on sale and even organic wine. For the best juice you will ever taste make sure you stop at Dr. Juice which uses only the freshest and rawest ingredients. They chuck everything into a blender, churn it out and serve it to you straight away in a glass – it is the best juice I have ever tasted and I highly recommend it.
My eyes almost popped out of my skull at Stellini – a stall selling Italian gelato. Amongst the selection of flavours on offer was a strawberry sorbet and perched on top: two of the hugest strawberries I have ever seen. They looked even better than the ice-creams and sorbets on offer, but after a taste of the black forest ice-cream the astronomically large, succulent strawberries and the delectable ice-cream and sorbets ranked together on a high level of deliciousness.
One of my biggest weaknesses – biltong – was on offer at Cape Mountain Charcuterie and I tried a magnificent chorizo snapstick. My time in Argentina fostered a great love for chorizo, as well as Chimichurri which I found at More Sauce and Relish. Amongst other good impressions were olive oil (another weakness of mine) from Portion 36; biltong relish, also from More Sauce and Relish; bacon jam from Cure Deli; creamy Gorgonzola from the Constantia Cheesery and Bar One fudge from Sweet Dreams.
Now, having a friend obsessively in love with pastries and confectionery, but extremely discerning in taste, when I ambled upon Delicioso – a stall specialising in Portuguese food – and saw that they were selling pasteis de nata, I had to try one as she had been talking about them earlier in the week; and having Portuguese friends was another reason that compelled me to try it. I would love to know whether any of them would approve, but I certainly did. If you’re curious you can also find them at La Vide Caffe; although the ones I tried at the market were made with sweet potato, whereas they are normally filled with custard. After months of receiving enthusiastic newsletters and scrumptious food ideas from Salad Lovers, I was happy to finally pay a visit to their stall and sample the excellent hummus they had on sale.
Some of the disappointments of the day were a couple of bland pasta sauces and the tuna biltong – and if you are going to try anything hot or spicy, make sure you try it last as you don’t want it interfering with the flavours of anything else you want to try.
For a spot of Saturday morning shopping – which is a big part of what markets are about – there are various stalls from which to buy fresh fruit and vegetables and although they are fresh, raw and natural the prices are not much different than in your regular supermarket and some are even higher. Although knowing that it is fine, fresh goodness that you are buying and that you are supporting local producers makes it worth the extra cost.
The market takes place in Tokai every Saturday from 09:00 – 14:00, but if getting up early on a Saturday morning is out of the question you can also find them in Tokai for a night market on Wednesdays from 15:00 – 20:30 or in Noordhoek on Thursday evenings from 16:00 – 20:30. For an excellent and healthy lunch break during the week, head to St. George’s Mall in town between 11:00 – 15:00, also on a Thursday. Earth Fair Food Market provides you with the perfect opportunity to shop and eat healthily, while helping the planet at the same time.
Originally published on Dinner and a Movie.