SALCEDO MARKET

Fruits and vegetables on display at Salcedo Market

On my last day in Manila, I scheduled a visit to the Salcedo market which everyone had told me was worth a trip and I was so glad that I did.  Started in 2004, the market has now grown and is a mainstay in Makati where both local residents and foreigners come on Saturdays to look around the many vendors.

Despite the high humidity which was making everyone drip with sweat, I really enjoyed my couple of hours walking around and exploring.  If I had more time and it was cooler, I would stayed much longer and tried many of the different food stalls.

Clockwise from top left: Traditional banana-leaf wrapped rice cakes, purple yam ube ice cream, the ice cream cart, other rice cake delicacies.

As it was hot, hot, hot, we decided to cool down with a scoop of local ice cream called sorbetes sold traditionally from a three-container metal cart.  This one had ube (purple yam), tsokolate (chocolate) and cheese.  Strange as it may sound, Filipinos grew up eating cheese-flavored ice cream.  It's one of those local flavors that's difficult to explain.  My mom and I had ube while my little girl had a scoop of tsokolate (milk chocolate).  This kept us going for a while longer.

All sorts of cooked food from barbecued pork and fish to ready-to-eat portions of roast pig.

We looked around a bit  more and tasted a few of the samples being offered - bits of suman (sweetened rice cakes), some dalandan (local green-skinned oranges) and rambutan.  Our nose and the smoke led us to the far corner where several stands were grilling sweetly spiced pork skewers, pork belly, tuna jaw and even whole Tilapia.  There was also a lechon (roast pig) stand where pre-packaged crispy crackling and slices of roast pork were ready to be eaten right there.  I spotted a few friends as well, doing their weekly shopping armed with their own cloth carrier bags and appropriately dressed for the heat in tank-tops, shorts, and flip-flops unlike myself.

Markets are meant to be a meandering affair but we were starting to tire from the heat and the kids were getting sticky and bored so we headed home but not before buying a half kilo of rambutan and a nutella crepe from the French-run (yes, really) crepe stand.  I'm definitely coming back to the Salcedo market on my next trip home armed with a large basket, a fan and lots of cold water.

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Salcedo Saturday Market

at the Salcedo car park, Salcedo village

Makati

Open every Saturday from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m.