Paseo de Diego in the Rio Piedras barrio of San Juan
When I was a kid, my reward for good grades (or good behavior) was a little unusual. I didn't get candy, or a toy. I got a trip to Lexington Market in Baltimore to buy tropical fruits.
Whether it was the influence of Gilligan's Island, my father living in the Philippines during the Second World War, or a preordained genetic predisposition since my great grandfather was a green grocer in New York-- I have always had an obsession with tropical fruits-- and my father (who also loved them) was always my happy enabler in this obsession.
Since the Acme Grocery Store in Riviera Beach, Maryland rarely had anything more exotic than a pomegranate a week before Thanksgiving, and an end cap of mainly indigestible Big Mike bananas (my father loathed eating Big Mike or "yellow bananas" as he called them since he (rightly) pointed out they were originally "cooking" bananas versus red "eating" bananas)-- our only option was going to Lexington Market, which though not quite the third world experience it is now, was still quite exotic to a suburban preteen.
I often think of those happy days when I go to the markets here. Most cities of any size in Puerto Rico have a municipal market building, and since San Juan scooped up Rio Piedras in the early 20th Century-- San Juan has two!!! Like Lexington Market in Baltimore, these large buildings are divided into stalls, some held by families for generations, where everything from produce to electronics are sold.
Although these retail establishments are sometimes referred to as "farmer's markets" this term is very misleading. The vendors in these building are not farmers but rather, retailers who buy from suppliers who buy from farmers. Likewise, you have to look carefully at what you are buying as "local" produce (if that is what you are aiming to do) because just like at any grocery store, many of the items are imported. Granted often times that far off country is the Dominican Republic next door-- but it is not local all the same.
Personally I like going to the market in Rio Piedras more than Santurce these days. In the Paseo de Diego, a pedestrian only street in front of the market in Rio Piedras, you really do have some truck farmers selling along the sidewalk. On a recent excursion with two of our recently arrived tenants, I explained my own shopping strategy: "Check out the sidewalk vendors first and then whatever you need after that-- buy it in the market where everything is marked up to cover the overhead."
Beyond getting excellent produce at the best freshness and ripeness levels (a good green grocery will pick fruits that will be ready that day and each subsequent day for a week-- and are rarely wrong in their assessment) you also get the carnival-like atmosphere. My own routine includes: pinchos (grilled meat on a stick slathered in BBQ sauce and served with a slice of soft, fresh garlic bread); papa rellena (stuffed potato croquette); helado de parcha (or coco or piña) a delightfully smooth water-ice of passion fruit (or coconut or pineapple); limonada (fresh lemonade of muddled lemon slices and brown sugar shaken over ice); and to revive before driving home-- cafe con leche and a quesito (espresso and steamed milk and a cream cheese puff pastry usually served in the afternoon).
Since I love fruit (and street food) going to the markets here is a lot more fun than freezing in the produce section at the super market. Its also a lot more fun than dodging hawkers on Lexington Avenue in Baltimore. But in all fairness to Baltimore though, it's probably as much about climate as it is about environment since (when all is said and done) hawkers are hawkers no matter where you happen to be.
My father would have probably hated the Paseo de Diego (as much as he hated Lexington Market to be truthful) but he would have loved the yummy red bananas and baskets of fresh mangos. Life is all about compromise.
Comments