New Gastronomic Awareness at the Market

Since it was constructed over 100 years ago, Fortaleza's central food and produce market, the Mercado São Sebastião has grown and prospered, but has never been considered a gastronomic hotspot, even though one can buy all the traditional food stuffs of local regional cuisine as well as eat traditional northeastern food in a number of restaurants and lunch-stalls. Located in a distinctly down-market part of Fortaleza's downtown, the market has primarily served nearby residents and workers in the food industry, whether they are produce wholesalers, restaurant managers, or food producers. The lunch stalls which encircle the central produce section serve hearty, traditional meals from the early hours of the morning to the market's hungry vendors and customers, as well as to a few night owls who are accustomed to stop for a hot bowl of soup before heading home to sleep off the night's festivities.

panelada

The richness of the market and it's gastronomic value have always been underappreciated in Fortaleza, and many of the city's food establishment (produers and consumers alike) have never passed through the market's doors. That's all changing now as Fortaleza (like all of Brazil) is becoming more interested in all aspects of food and agriculture. Savvy consumers are doing their daily or weekly shopping at the market, knowing that the quality is high and the prices are low. Locavores and foodies arefamiliarizing themselves with the lunch stalls in search of the best panelada, galinha caipira or baião-de-dois. Things are definitely looking up at the market in all kinds of ways.

Being aware of the gastronomic and touristic potential of the market, the management of Mercado São Sebastião, in conjunction with SEBRAE, a governmental agency which aids small businesses, has initiated a project at the market to maximize its potential as a gastronomic destination. The market's vendors are being offered a course in local gastronomic history and tradition, standards of sanitation and hygiene, and entrepreneurship. The project includes a new gastronomic logo, which merchants who have completed the course can display at their booths, as well as signage in the market to help tourists and visitors find their way through the aisles and stalls.

In other cities of Brazil, a visit to the market is an essential part of tourists' itineraries. Belem's Ver-o-Peso market is the most visited destination in that city, as is the Mercado Público de Florianópolis in the southern state of Santa Catarina. Fortaleza, fortunately, is waking up to the fact that they already possess a market with similar tourism and gastronomic potential, and this new program is a valuable first step forward in making the Mercado São Sebastião an essential part of Fortaleza's tourist itinerary.

The Story of Carmelita - Ver-o-Peso's Queen of Amazonian Fruits

Among all the thousands of vendors hawking their products daily in the stands and stalls of Belém's enormous Ver-o-Peso market, there is only one small stand, operated by one small woman of 62 years, that year-round sells fruits from the Amazonian basin, and only sells Amazonian fruits. No apples, no pears, no strawberries - if it isn't from the Amazon Carmelita dos Passos Rocha wants nothing to do with it.

When Carmelita first opened her small stand at Ver-o-Peso 42 years ago, this wasn't the case. At that time, the shoppers at the market weren't interested in the fruits that flourish in the rain-forest and along the banks of the Amazon. They wanted sophisticated European fruits, which had to be shipped in at great expense, and which often arrived in less-than-perfect condition. Of course, Carmelita, who was only 20 years old when she bought her stand, also sold the more commercialized tropical fruits of Brazil. Things like bananas, mangoes and papayas. But it was her apples and plums that made her living in the early years.

Carmelita

About 15 or 20 years ago, Carmelita was asked by a customer if she sold cupuaçu or tucumã, traditional local fruits which had almost been forgotten. She didn't, but promised the customer she'd find some to sell, and when she did, these local fruits sold very well. She began to add more local fruits, and over time, apples and peaches lost their place in Carmelita's stall - bananas didn't, but she began to carry some more unusual varieties of Brazil's number-one fruit. Today's Carmelita's stand is a shrine to the bounty of the jungle that surrounds Belém. Besides cupuaçu or tucumã, one can find bacaba, açaí, ingá-chinela, bacuri-pari, cajuru and taperebá on display. And if one of these fruits is not currently in season, it's likely that Carmelita will have frozen pulp available. For those pulps, you can thank Carmelita's sister - she's the one who prepares and freezes them.

It's encouraging to see someone like Carmelita flourish. Remaining small and independent, she has created a business that is tied intimately to its own region, and which showcases the region's botanical cornucopia. She surely is Ver-o-Peso's Queen of Amazonian Fruits.

Adapted from material by Olivia Fraga published in the Estado de S. Paulo newspaper.

MARKETS OF BRAZIL - Ver-o-Peso Market, Belém

Brazil, just like the rest of the world, is full of supermarkets. They can be everywhere - on downtown main streets, in the suburbs of the big cities, and anchoring giant Brazilian shopping centers. Fortunately, in many cities the Brazilian supermarket chains have not yet succeeded in totally eliminating central markets, which offer shelter to small individual vendors, each selling a limited range of products. Maybe fruits and vegetables, perhaps dairy, cheese and eggs, or possibly fish, poultry or meat. A Brazilian central market is an impressive place. Usually loud, invariably very colorful, and always aromatic.

Flavors of Brazil has posted articles and photos of some of Brazil's major markets, like São Paulo's Mercado Municipal, Fortaleza's Mercado São Sebastião and Mercado dos Pinhões, and the São Pedro Fish Market in Niterói, Rio de Janeiro. These are all important municipal monuments. There's only one city in Brazil, however, where the public market has become the prime symbol of the city itself - what the Eiffel Tower is to Paris, or the Opera House is to Sydney - and that's in Belém, capital of the state of Pará and located near the mouth of the Amazon River system in northern Brazil. Belém's market, the Mercado Ver-o-Peso, with it's distinctive steeples, and sky-blue color is emblazoned on souvenir T-shirts, pictured on postcards (to the extent they still exist), captured daily by thousands of digital cameras in the hands of Brazilian and foreign tourists alike, and held in the heart of Belenses (natives of Belém) whether they live one block from the market or thousands of miles away.

The unusual name of the Ver-o-Peso Market dates back to colonial times, when the market housed the offices of the Portuguese colonial tax collector. Ver-o-Peso is a shortened form of the Portuguese phrase "Haver-o-Peso" meaning "possess or obtain the weight." The tax collector was charged with collecting a tariff on all goods coming down the river and this tariff was based not on monetary value of goods but on their weight. Hence, "Ver-o-Peso."

The market is located directly on Belém's riverside waterfront, where the giagantic Amazon forms the Bay of Guajará, and has its own docks for receiving goods from upriver. Although the market complex dates back to the 17th Century, the present-day building themselves are a product of a late 19th-Century renovation, and display the Belle Époque architectural stylings of much of Brazil's municipal architecture of that time. The market's cast-iron clock tower was fabricated in England, disassembled, shipped to Belém and reassembled on site.

Ver-o-Peso today covers over almost 35,000 square meters (9 acres) of land, and is divided into subsections selling meat, fish, fruits (including a specialized market selling only açaí), arts and crafts, and prepared food.

Ver-o-Peso in 1935

In 1997, the market was given national heritage status and cannot be significantly changed, or modified in any way that would alter its historic characteristics. Even if there were no such governmental protection, it's inconceivable that the citizens of Belém would permit any alteration to their beloved market. The future of Ver-o-Peso appears to to be well assured.

São Paulo's Municipal Market - Some Statistics

Some interesting statistics about São Paulo's Municipal Market -

• 1600 - The number of persons employed by the market and its vendors
• 1000 - tons of merchandise sold per day (wholesale and retail
• 298 - number of stands and individual vendors in the market
• 20,000 - average number of visitors per day
• 90 - number of truckload deliveries per day to the market
• 1,200,000 - number of liters of water used per month by the market and its vendors
• 780 - kilowatt/hours of electricity used per month by the market and its vendors

São Paulo's Magnificent Municipal Market

If the Grecian Revival banks of Wall Street in New York or in the City in London are the world's true temples of finance, certainly the large central markets of the world's great cities are its temples of gastronomy. They are the shrines in which all the basics of a culture's cuisine can be found, and the source of all of the constituent ingredients of a country's, a region's, or a city's gastronomy. Think of La Merced market in Mexico City, spreading over several city blocks and bursting at the seams with mountains of chiles and moles, acres of corn and squashes, and redolent of the aroma of Mexican cooking. Or La Mercat de la Boqueria in Barcelona, situated just off Las Ramblas, where butcher shops display transparent slices of serrano ham, the fish stalls present the bounty of the Mediterranean on ice, and pyramids of lemons, oranges and tangerines tower over the fruit vendors' stalls. Vancouver's Granville Island Public Market doesn't have the lengthy history of its cousins in Mexico or Spain but it encapsulates what current Pacific Northwest gastronomy is all about - wild sockeye salmon, fresh cherries and berries, locally-sourced, organic pork and beef and in August and September the world's best peaches and apricots.

The Mercado Municipal da Cantareira in São Paulo is worthy of a prominent place in this pantheon of great markets. Known affectionately by Paulistanos as the Mercadão, meaning "big market', the Mercado Municipal in its vast space illuminated by stained-glass windows houses not only stands selling fruits, vegetables, spices, meat, poultry and seafood, but also a mezzanine lined with restaurants overlooking the action below and offering everything from simple snacks and home-cooking to up-to-the-minute, avant-garde contemporary gastronomy.

Built in a somewhat eclectic classical style designed by architect Francisco Ramos de Azevedo, the Market's opening, scheduled for the early 1930s was delayed by the Constitutionalist Revolution of 1932, during which time the still-unfinished building served as headquarters for the military and as a warehouse for arms and munition. It was only on January 25, 1933, the birthday of the city of São Paulo, that the market finally opened for its original purpose.

The huge central space of the Mercado Municipal is light and airy thanks to the high clerestory windows which allow abundant daylight to reach even into the center aisles of the market. Along the front facade ranges a series of enormous stained-glass windows which are the work of Germano-Brazilian artist Conrado Sorgenicht Filho and which celebrate the daily lives of agricultural workers during the golden age of São Paulo's coffee economy.

The market is located just at the edge of São Paulo's central business district, near the incredible bustle of the city's 25 de Março Street, an open-air market selling everything imaginable from pirated CDs and DVDs through appliances and washing machines to high-end designer goods (real and knock-offs). Plan a visit to the Mercado Municipal in the morning, making your way on foot from the nearest Metro station, São Bento, along 25 de Março and plan to arrive at the market by 11 a.m. This will give you time to explore the stalls and stands on the main floor, and then, when your appetite has been thoroughly aroused, ascend to the mezzanine between noon and 1 p.m. to choose between the dozens of options for lunch. When you depart after lunch, satiated and satisfied, you'll have gained an insight into São Paulo and its food culture better and will carry among memories this great market in one of the world's largest megalopolises.

On the Road - Rio de Janeiro (Pt. 4) - São Pedro Fish Market, Niterói

If Rio de Janeiro is Brazil's San Francisco, a comparison that's been made many times, then the city of Niterói on the other side of the Bay of Guanabara is its Oakland. Connected to Rio by a trans-bay bridge, Niterói is less cosmopolitan, less glamourous and less wealthy than Rio. If Gertrude Stein had been from Niterói she might have written "Não tem ai ai" about that city instead of "There's no there there" about Oakland.

Apart from a spectacular museum of contemporary art designed by the famed Brazilian architect Oscar Neimeyer, Niterói doesn't have much to draw the tourists away from the beaches, bars, shops and restaurants of Rio de Janeiro. Except for tourists like Flavors of Brazil, for whom Niterói possesses a location of great interest - its fish market, named after St. Peter (São Pedro). For reasons of geography and access to fishing grounds up and down the coast of Brazil, it makes sense to have the area's regional fish market in Niterói, not in Rio de Janeiro itself.

Housed in a non-prepossessing industrial style building near the waterfront, the Mercado São Pedro is one of the world's great fish markets. The variety and quality of fish and seafood available in amazing - and with the exception of farmed salmon which comes from the cold waters off of Chile, it's all local. You won't find cold water fish here, only the bounty of the tropical oceans and freshwater lagoons of Brazil.

The first floor of the market is divided into retail stalls for direct sales to customers. One floor above is a collection of bar/restaurants. Fish market customers often choose their fish or seafood downstairs, carry it upstairs to one of the restaurants, and have it cooked and served to them right then and there. The next post here on Flavors of Brazil will discuss these restaurants.

The best way to show the range of products available at Mercado São Pedro, their freshness and presentation, is through photos. The following were all taken on day in late December 2010 at the market, and give some indication of what's available for sale at any given time.

The market is easy to reach from Rio de Janeiro by bus/bridge, or by ferry and a short walk from the pier. For anyone who is a tourist in Rio and wants a gastronomic day-away from the beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema, you can't do better than an excursion to Niterói's fish market - plan to be there at lunch time so you can choose your own fish or shellfish for lunch upstairs, and if possible, go during the week, when it tends to be somewhat less busy.

(click on photos to enlarge)

tuna

fish stall

shrimp

shrimp vendor

dourado (dolphin fish, mahi-mahi)

fish cut into steaks

unidentified tropical fish

octopus

dourado fillets

cavaquinha

sardines

roe

pargo

VIDEO - Tour of Fortaleza's central market - Mercado São Sebastião

Mercado dos Pinhões - The Friday Market

This morning, like most Friday mornings, I went "to market" just after breakfast, before the heat of the day becomes oppressive, and while the selection of produce, dairy and meat is still abundant. The market opens around 7 am, and is over before noon. Today I was looking for produce for a dinner party, and for the weekend ahead. It took me only 15 or 20 minutes (and the equivalent of $4.00) to fill my shopping bag. I spent a few more minutes taking photos of the products available, which can be found by clicking "read more..."  I'll be discussing these products in more detail soon on the blog; in this post, I'm more interested in showing the variety and quality available at the market.

Fortaleza's Mercado dos Pinhões - The Structure

In nearly every Brazilian city, small or large, traditional open-air food markets co-exist with supermarkets and hypermarkets. In any particular locale, only one day a week is "market-day". In my neighbourhood in Fortaleza, on Brazil's Northeast coast, Friday is market day, and it's held in front of a historic iron market structure from the end of the 19th Century. The actual iron market, called Mercado dos Pinhões (the word pinhões means "pine nuts" in Portuguese, but I've been unable to discover why the market is so called), is now a municipal arts and culture centre, and the Friday market has moved into the plaza in front.

The iron market structure was constructed in Orleans, France, shipped to Brazil, and assembled in Fortaleza. It opened on April 17, 1897, and was double the present-day size. The open iron-work structure was perfect for Fortaleza's tropical heat, as it allowed the breeze to flow freely through the market. The iron work was highly ornamented in the style of the period, and art-nouveau stained glass was employed under the iron roof.

Today, the Mercado dos Pinhões is a protected historical structure. It no longer serves its original purpose, but its presence gives the Friday market a beauty and gravity it would not have in the absence of the iron lace of the old market sitting squarely on its plaza.