I love markets. It’s the one thing that connects me faster and better with a culture than any other thing I do in a foreign city. Whether it’s an American supermarket an Asian hawker market or a European food market the effect is the same. Today I’ll let the images do the majority of the talking to drive this point home. The below slideshow will take you through the good, ugly and weird of two Italian markets I visited on my recent trip. A few highlights, starting with the above veal brain. Look out for the stuffed rooster neck and the the skinned rabbit in the slideshow. The offal counter is another key image that you don’t see very often. A guy who only serves organs and intestine for a living. It takes a strong man. Enjoy the images, I hope it inspires you to poke around the local market more on your next excursion.

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This video captures the extensive stands and stalls that make up the ubber colorful Mysore Market. I spent 2 days in Mysore sucking up the history, landmarks, architecture and food. The market was the best I found in all of India. By day two I had my chai guy, chalk guy and kitchen utensil vendors calling me by name. A good food market is always at the heart of any great town and this definitely exceeded my expectations.

Helsinki Finland is a nice little city. I will be back there a few more times before my contract is over and I will definitely be back to hit up the market. I love markets like this. Everything is fresh. There were 2 small boats docked next to the market with fish caught that morning. Talk about a cheap rent!

All the fresh vegetables and fruits makes you want to live there and go to the market every day to get great food to cook with. I had to pick up a pack of strawberries just for walking around (my favorite fruit). We did have a brief snack at the end of the market. The market had a giant grill, cooking fried squid, onion rings, fried little fish (too fishy for me) moose meatballs, and salmon balls with lemon sauce. We tried the salmon balls and the moose meatballs. I will definitely be back to get a bigger plate next time. The salmon balls were like crab cakes but salmon. Really good! The moose meatballs were good but needed a sauce. They were a little dry. No worries I will definitely be back.

Oh there was a little roach coach burger/hot dog stand there. I think I will have to try one of their burgers. The pictures on the side of the truck looked interesting. Check out the video.