A TRIP TO THE MARCHE' AND COOKING CHEZ NOUS

12 Avril, 2025

It was Saturday, and the largest market in Nice was open and thriving, 15 minutes walk from our apartment. This was our second visit and we had time to enjoy the stroll through the 500 m sensual market area. The flower sellers are first, with colors, blooms and scent teasing and inviting...Yellow, orange, white, red, and cerise flowers are vying for attention trying to flag us down from their crowded containers. Next there is the olive merchant, with glossy and green, black and multicolored olives captured in oil vying for attention over the exoticly shaped nuts in glass topped bowls right next them. There may have been 100 fruit and vegetable tables each with a grocery store of brightly colored items on display, so fresh and vibrant, I wanted to learn how to use them all.

Photos: The day's harvest included gambas (shrimps), sardines, baby zucchini with blossoms, spinach, a salad made with flash cooked sardines

The seller behind the table will hand you a plastic basket to fill if you show interest, weigh the veg and bag it with one hand while nodding and handing baskets out with the other. I found luscious bright green spinach and two handfuls of parsley, enough to make a fine bouquet, and was astonished when the merchant asked for 1.20 Euro for all of it! So many varietels of tomatoes, lettuces, onions, greens, and some of what must surely be the first strawberries, blackberries, and melons of the season.

Heading next to the poisionnerie, we found a long line of tables dripping ice holding more types of seafood and creatures than I knew existed. My mission was to purchase some of the fresh gambas (shrimp), that still tasted of the sea, not the soggy stuff sold in many main grocery stores. I watched long enough to understand the fish market protocol, and then pointed to the medium sized shrimp marked in kiligram prices. The fishmonger taking orders behind the melting ice tables scooped up a handful of beautiful shrimp and deftly bagged them and handed them to me while taking my cash. At the next table, I saw some fresh sardines -- not the small ones that you might have only seen in a can, but big 5-6 inch long whole sardines. I asked how to cook them, and after a bewildered look the man behind the counter called a lady helper who popped up at my side as if called by a genie. When I repeated my request, she said, "Vide, farine et poěle." I interpreted this as her shorthand recipe - "clean the fish, dredge in flour and put on stove". I nodded as if that explained it all...and asked for four. How hard could that be? She pulled up four and they were whisked away and deposited at the table behind the main stall where another man was quickly cleaning ordered fish before wrapping in butcher paper. Orders were then sent back to the fishmonger in front to be paid for and bagged.

"Oh they clean them, what a relief," I thought, as I am accustomed to cooking cleaned fish in a pink poly container with film wrap on top.

I followed her "recipe" adding salt, pepper, paprika, a bit of ground cloves and garam masala to the dusting of flour after rinsing and drying the sardines. Then they were simply fried in light oil and graced with a squeeze of fresh lemon. Quite nice really. Next time we will try the *Coquille St Jacques.

*The dish, Coquille St Jacques, has been a staple of French cuisine for centuries. The name “Coquille St Jacques” is French for “St James’ shell,” which refers to the scallop shell that is traditionally used as a serving vessel for the dish.

Photos Market photos: Courgettes (zucchini), colorful tomates et poivrons (peppers), our meal, poulpe (octopus), coquilles saint-jacques (scallops in their shells), loup (bass).

Baby Courgettes (zucchini with flowers)