Philadelphia, PA

While I was at the Sudoku Competition on Saturday, I ate lunch at the Reading Terminal Market. I’ve mentioned the Market before back when there was the controversy over Rick’s Steaks(which is still there by the way!!!). I had a delicious falafel pita sandwich and fresh squeezed juice at Kamal’s.

Market History
Markets have been a part of Philadelphia’s history since the city’s development by William Penn in the late seventeenth century. When William Penn’s managers established the town of Philadelphia, one of their first actions was to herd the ragtag crowd of farmers, fisherman, and huntsman, who were hawking their goods all over the bustling settlement, into an open area at the foot of what was known as High Street, along the Delaware River. Soon the so-called ‘Jersey Market’ (because most of the hucksters were from the neighboring state) began to expand westward in the middle of the thoroughfare that had been appropriately renamed Market Street. With the growth of Philadelphia came the expansion of public markets. By the middle of the nineteenth century, the string of market sheds had become six blocks long, making the easternmost mile of the city’s main street a veritable babble of farmers and food purveyors on most days.
Today, Reading Terminal Market is once again the gastronomic bazaar that its original planners had envisioned. Many of the historic Market stands survived the reconstruction and are once again filled with local produce, fresh eggs, milk, meats, poultry, seafood, handmade crafts, jewelry, and clothing. The Market is home to more than 80 merchants, two of whom are descendants of the original standholders from a century before. Today, the Market is 100 percent leased. On any given day one can find an eclectic array of fresh baked Amish goods, produce direct from the field, unusual spices, free range meats and poultry, flowers, ethnic foods, and much more. One hundred thousand Philadelphians and tourists pass through the Reading Terminal Market every week enjoying its exceptional products, history, and people. (http://www.readingterminalmarket.org/about/history)

The Market is open Monday through Saturday 8:00 am–6:00 pm, and now Sundays 9:00 am–4:00 pm. For a list of Merchant’s in the Market, check out this nifty map on the RTM’s site.
The Market also offers Special Events. Oct. 23 at noon, there will be a Cooking Demonstration at Dominique’s Tropical Latitude’s with Dominique Macquet. The demonstration will cover a variety of “southern hemisphere” foods from countries as diverse as Vietnam, Trinidad and Argentina.
Other upcoming events:
* Oct 27, 2007 · Book Sigining Atlas of American Artisan Cheese
* Oct 28, 2007 · Watch the Eagles Game Score Some Dinner
* Nov 4, 2007 · Sunday Soundbites

Reading Terminal Market, Philadelphia Markets