Gems of Legazpi Sunday Market

As promised I would blog about the Sunday Market at Legazpi Village in Makati. Its actually located on the corner of Legazpi St. and V.A. Rufino St.

As I said before, its one of two Weekend Open air market in the Makati area. The bigger one is Salcedo Village Saturday Market. There are significant overlaps of the two markets i.e., many of the stalls are also available in both days but not entirely. If you been one, its still worth it to visit the other.

In Legazpi market I found a number of real gems. Firstly they have a big organic section with a wide variety of offerings. I tried some cakes and bread and they were quite good.

The real gem that I found was an Indonesian offering. You get Goreng Ayam, Gado-Gado, Kari Ayam, Rendang, Satay. But the best offering is the authentic Sambal Matah that was available either with boiled egg or eggplant. Those who have tasted the Indonesia fresh sambal most popular in Bali knows how different it is from Malaysian or Singapore sambal. It uses a version of shrimp paste called terasi but includes ingredients like lemongras, lime, shallots and also coconut oil. Its bright red in color and taste very fresh and natural. Its good with just about anything including just simple vegetables and eggs. I love it with simple Nasi Goreng or Mee Goreng. In Indonesia, I ate it with simple Bakso (or chicken noodle soup) or as a bread spread which the Indonesian find strange. In this city where spicy food is not anywhere, its really a good find.

There are other good finds in Legazpi Sunday Market including decent Spanish, Middle East, Italian, Malaysian, as well as offerings from different provinces here.

Noodles

There are some of us who are noodle soup fans whether its wanton noodle, fish (including fish head and fish-ball) noodles, Japanese Ramen. Its why we take to instant noodles like no where else on earth. Here in Manila, its not that you can't find them, you just can't find them conveniently - at least not in a good enough quality in a lower price range. And its impossible in the early morning. Sometimes, you just want a bowl of noodles for breakfast.

Well, I found it this weekend at Legaszpi Village Sunday Market. I had only previously briefly visited the market after going to bigger Saturday Salcedo Village Market which I have been frequenting for the last few weeks. It had not looked different and smaller.

This weekend since my Saturday was shot because of events, I decided to spend my Sunday here. To my surprise it yielded a number of gems the big one being getting good wanton noodle on a Sunday Morning..

The place is called Your Daily DimSum and it did not attract me in my previous quick walk-through because you can get Dim Sum everywhere here even really early in the morning. Again, no decent noodle soup before 10am, attracted me. So for 120 Peso, I digged in what is pretty decent soup with acceptable noodle quality. The wanton was whole shrimp which impressed me. The noodle quality is what you would find in Malaysia in most places - on the soft side not like in Hong Kong which is has more 'spring' in it. But the best is the soup, very light on the MSG, quality soup like in decent places in Hong Kong and US Chinatowns - not the MSG-filled ones you get in Singapore and Malaysia hawkers. So value wise, it was a good buy. I definitely recommend it over most places here. Oh, the dimsum was good too - not the low quality ingredient type - pretty much restaurant quality.

There are other great finds in Legazpi Market but I will talk about it later...