Other People's Houses

The major drawback of living by oneself is that you become pretty frugal with food - purely out of necessity - rather than promptly buying up all the fresh, ripe and plump produce on offer, you often find yourself trying to calculate if you'll actually manage to consume it all, and if so, will you be able to do it before the use by date. I'm glad that I held off visiting Atlanta's Dekalb Farmers' Market until my mum came over to visit, and was therefore present to help me guzzle all the goodies. Sadly, there are several glaring signs at the entrance to the market warning that photography isn't allowed on the premises, so the photo below, taken right outside the huge complex, will have to do.


The farmers' market is Dekalb County's answer to our own Vic Market - except that all the food is housed under one (enormous) roof and that the focus is strictly on food. The great thing about the market is that it carries a lot of international stuff that you might not otherwise be able to find in regular supermarkets over here, and that the majority of it is pretty cheap. Among the huge array of meats, fish, exotic fruits and totally weird vegetables, not to mention some industrial strength Peruvian coffee and monster pastries, I was pretty chuffed just to finally find some cayenne pepper which I haven't been able to find anywhere else. Overall, our haul included a stack of raspberries and blackberries, anchovies (furry but yummy!), the aforementioned pepper, fresh crusty sourdough (a warning to anyone who loves bread - you'll be hard-pressed to find good bread over here, except in places like farmers' markets or specialty bakeries) and some fine-smelling brie cheese. I don't think my flat has ever seen so much food before.

Even though the market is only a 10-15 minute drive from my place, I'm embarrassed to say that today was my first time in that area of town. Similar to what I said before, sometimes it's hard to motivate yourself to do certain things when it's just you on your own. My eagle-eyed mum spotted an interesting row of houses on our approach to the market, so on the way back, we stopped to take some pics. I must admit that when I used to think of the southern states in the U.S., Georgia included, I thought I would see places and landscapes that looked something like this - leafy boulevards and folks sitting around on their porches, chewing on straw...I didn't see anyone on their porch doing any chewing, but I did see some quirky little places...














Funnily enough, when thinking of the southern states, I used to think I'd see more signs like this...I know I've posted up a picture of a gun show advertisement before, but the gun culture here still amuses me.