Torrance Farmer's Market - Thao's Produce - Eggplants

Thao's Farm - Torrance Farmer's Market

I frequently shop at the Torrance Farmer's Market. It's the third largest Farmer's Market in Los Angeles, and I could post thousands of photos of the produce, flowers, prepared food (pupusas, kettle corn, crepes, bacon wrapped hot dogs, filled malasadas, BBQ, corn on a cob...) and all the items I carry to my car every week. My instagram account @foodlibrarian is filled with them!

Maybe later this summer I'll do a longer post talking about my favorite vendors. Today, I want to highlight just one vegetable: eggplant.

At Thao's stand, you get your choice. Serious.

I love this Fresno farm. It grows a bunch of Asian favorites: bok choy, Chinese string beans, lemon grass, bitter melon, and so many greens that I don't know what they are! You can pick up cooking tips from customers and vendors alike while shopping there. They grow the English Peas I used to make my Peas & Rice, and they grow leeks, peanuts, jujubes, potatoes, cucumbers (at least three types) and onions.

Look how many eggplant varieties they offer! It reflects the great diversity of California. I'm so lucky to live here. :)


Chinese Eggplant


Italian Eggplant


Filipino Eggplant


Indian Eggplant


Japanese Eggplant


American Eggplant

How do you cook your eggplant? I'll take the longer (Japanese, Chinese) eggplant and slice them lengthwise. I'll cook them with a little olive oil in my cast iron pan. Then, when they are almost done, I'll spread the cut tops with a miso paste that has been diluted with a bit of water. Easy and delicious. Sometimes, I'll serve with a bit of soy sauce, but the miso paste is usually salty enough.

You might be interested in this brochure produced by the Torrance Farmer's Market - Your guide to Asian Produce.


I couldn't resist sharing some of the photos from this past Saturday. The tomatoes are from Thao's Farm and the rest are other vendors. Oh, the glory of summer fruits and vegetables!

Torrance Farmer's Market
Every Tuesday and Saturday, Rain or Shine, All-Year
Wilson Park, 2200 Crenshaw Blvd. (between Carson & Sepulveda)

Hint: I park in the Korean Church parking lot across the street from Wilson Park on Saturdays (they are cool with it) as parking in Wilson Park's lot can get very congested.

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English Peas and Rice

English Peas and Rice

This blog started as a way for me to document my attempts at baking. Back in 2007 (can't believe the blog is that old), I was trying to go from cake-box baking to baking from scratch. Only my closest friends read this blog. Then, somehow, a few more people started reading it. I've been lucky to meet  people via the blog that I now consider some of my best friends. It's been an interesting journey. Sometimes, I go back and read  earlier posts...especially the ones where I'm traveling, eating out and visiting friends. This blog truly is an open online diary so I won't forget special people, places and times.

This post is simply about documenting the taste of English peas in summer. It's not about the recipe (toss in peas in rice), but about the fun of grabbing all the little peas...and eating half of them raw because they are fresh and delicious.

Ahhh. So pretty. I want to remember this.

If everyone had fresh peas, there might be peas on earth.

I bought these at the farmers market. They also have a big container of shelled peas. That seems like it takes away a bit of the fun so I always buy them whole.

Premium brown rice (purchased at the Japanese grocery store - Nijiya and Mitsuwa have great selections of premium California rice) and the Zojirushi rice cooker (pricey but it's just lovely to have perfectly cooked rice available for hours).

I just threw a handful of peas into the rice cooker and pressed start. They come out mushy (very English :)

Along with stone fruits, English peas are edible summer. Hope your summer is off to a great start! - mary

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Winter Citrus: Kishu, Satsuma, Cara Cara Oranges

Oh, California Citrus. Love You.

Just a quick, random post about the bounty of citrus available at Farmer's Markets in Southern California right now.

I have great sympathy for places that don't have year-round farmer's markets nor citrus in their backyard. Being conceived, born and raised in Southern California, this just blows my mind. That...and snow. And how to layer clothing for cold weather. And how to drive in snowy weather. And all things related to the cold.

I just finished listening to Frank Bruni's book - Born Round: A Story of Family, Food and a Ferocious Appetite. It was a very interesting read/listen (he reads it himself) about his relationship with food, his weight, fad diets, bulimia, exercise, his family and being the NY Times Restaurant Critic. Anyway, at one point, his parent's move from the East Coast to La Jolla (San Diego) for a time. He wrote that they were amazed they could go into the backyard and pick citrus off their own tree at Christmas. Cracked me up...and reminded me how lucky I am to live in a place where you can have all types of citrus grow in your backyard.

Cutie mandarins or clementines are available nationwide now in those Cutie boxes. They are okay to me and I eat a handful at a meeting...but these oranges from the Farmer's Market are so much better. If you are in So Cal, please head out to your farmer's market this "winter" (Los Angeles Winter, that is)

Right now, my favorite is the kishu mandarin. The season for this small packages of deliciousness is short...so I usually get 3 pounds a week. When they are gone, I move onto the Golden Nugget mandarin and Sumo Citrus - my own season of citrus.

The Los Angeles Time's David Karp wrote about the seedless kishu in 2010. They are so sweet and delicious!

The Satsuma Mandarin or Mikan is the old standby for me. The skin is loose so it's a breeze to peel. Sweet and lovely. Sometimes they are small, and some a little larger. Seedless delights.

Oh, the Cara Cara Orange! It's got a great pink color and very tasty. To me, it's a cross of an orange and sweet ruby red grapefruit (but the official cross is between two navel oranges). I've seen them at Costco (Sunkist producer) and, through the years, at more stores. Seedless.

I hope you get a chance to try these yummy citrus fruit. You know, scurvy is bad. Let's all avoid it.

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Yamashiro Farmer's Market, Hollywood

Yamashiro's night time Farmer's Market in Hollywood

April - September 27

My friend (and I'm sure distant relative) JustJenn and I met at the Yamashiro Restaurant Farmer's Market in the Hollywood hills last week. The weekly Santa Monica farmers market may have heirloom everything, but this farmer's market has the best view.

Operating only from April - September from 5-9 pm, you should visit if you are in Los Angeles! There are some produce stands, but many people attend to eat dinner and relax. On our night, there were 3-4 food trucks, Yamashiro's slider stand, Takken skewers, crepes, french fries, and some other yummy things we couldn't fit in our bellies.

I picked up some Chocolate Peanut Butter from Nuttin Butter (bottom left photo) and we ended our meal with a snickerdoodle cookie with strawberry mojito sorbet sandwiches from the Cool Haus truck (bottom right photo).

Top: Takken sweet BBQ corn and filet mignon skewers. I had these when I went to the 626 Night Market in Pasadena and loved them. They don't have a restaurant, but appear at several farmer's markets in Los Angeles.

Bottom: Yamashiro has their own stand selling alcohol and sliders (menu). Oh dear. These sliders were delicious! We bought the Kurobuta Pork Carnitas ($4) with Hoisin & Honey Mustard, and the Alaskan Crab ($5) with 5 spice corn salsa, bell pepper mayo. The pickle bar is the BEST (I should have asked if they sold containers of these pickles) - Wasabi Ginger Mango, Green Bean, and Cucumber pickles. Perfection!

They had several vendors selling produce...but I didn't notice too many people buying veggies...hopefully they hit up the farmers on their way out.

Speaking of going in and out...you need to ARRIVE EARLY and take the shuttle. There is no parking in the area (it's a neighborhood with a narrow road). You can valet park your car at a church parking lot, then a van shuttles you up the Yamashiro's. Before you freak about the valet, the lot is tiny so they need to stack the cars super duper close to each other. My friend suggests parking at Hollywood & Highland complex and walking up to the front of Yamashiro's...might try that if your legs want to make that hike.

You have less than two months remaining for this year's festivities... be sure to head up the hill!

Yamashiro's Farmers Market - April 5 to September 27, 5 pm - 9 pm
Info: Yamashiro's website  ||  LA Farms website (with shuttle info)

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Happy Summer and Holiday Weekend!

It's that lovely time of year... when the stone fruit comes back into my life.

Summer.

Awesome.

Just got these from the Farmer's Market. Couldn't be happier with life than right now.

Wishing you and yours have a grand holiday weekend!

- mary the food librarian

P.S. If you are looking for something fun to make this holiday, my friend JustJenn has these cool shave ice cupcakes. She made them back in 2010 and they now appear in the current issue of Food Network magazine!

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Randy Newman and I agree: I Love LA... LA Farmer's Market

Happy Sunday Morning! I'm taking a break (read: procrastination) from washing the walls and ceilings of the bathrooms (seriously, it is hard to maneuver a ladder in that small space) to post some photos from my trip to the Farmers Market. (Taken on my Samsung Charge phone...not bad, huh?!)

As I walked through my Farmer's Market on Saturday morning, I thought about how lucky I am to live someplace with year-round Farmer's Markets and such great California produce. A friend of mine is moving back to Los Angeles after a few years on the East Coast. My message to the M family: Welcome back guys! Welcome back to the land of fresh delicious strawberries in November!

We have one vendor that grows every type of eggplant known to man! :) There are Chinese, Japanese, Indian, etc. variations...Los Angeles is diverse and the farmer's market reflects that.  A bunch of vendors have fuyu persimmons now too. It is really funny because I've always grown up eating persimmons (very popular among the Japanese American crowd, everyone has a relative with a tree in the backyard), but they were hardly in stores in my youth. And here they are everywhere! Reminds me of sushi, octopus, miso soup...I was eating that way before you could find in the mall food court. :)

Love the Farmer's Market food vendors. Sometimes, I get Thai food or a Pupusa or maybe a BBQ turkey leg to take home (there are also crepes, corn on the cob, seafood, sausages and bacon wrapped hot dogs). Of course, kettle corn is a must! Yesterday, I picked up the Corn Maiden pumkin, raisin and rum tamale with tomatillo sauce. Delicious!

I'm working on the National Bundt Day round-up. It's going to be epic! Over 100 bundts!

While I'm working on it, I'm going to eat some fresh fruits and veggies and... as Randy Newman sings, "I Love LA" and I shout back, "We Love It"!

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Golden Nugget Mandarins

Golden Nugget Mandarin Oranges

In addition to my well-known Bundt obsession, I'm fully admitting to a Citrus addiction as well. Well, at least scurvy ain't going to come into my life. I am full of Vitamin C.

In February, I wrote about the awesome Sumo Citrus or Dekopon tangerine. It is finally grown in California and completely rocks. However, it has a short season and is already gone.

I've been filling my citrus needs with Cara Cara oranges and plenty of Ruby Red Grapefruits. But then I went to the Hollywood and Palos Verdes Farmer's Markets and hit up Ken's Top Notch Produce stand. He had Cara Cara and some crazy ugly tangerine. He said they were fantastic and I tried a sample. They are sooo good! I said they looked like a Dekopon, but he said they were Golden Nugget Mandarins.

These Golden Nugget Mandarins are super sweet, seedless, easy to peal and delicious. I looked them up and they were developed the by University of California, Riverside Citrus Variety Collection. Nothing like SoCal developed mandarin!

Look at that bumpy skin! But the season for this citrus is also really short (Feb-April) so try to find these ASAP! - from your citrus obsessed Southern California girl, the Food Librarian

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Temescal Farmers Market - Oakland, CA

My friend Pam and I went to the Temescal Farmers Market on my recent trip up to Northern California. It was a lovely day and we wanted to pick up some fruits and veggies...and, of course, some baked goods!

Look how pretty the leaves are in Berkeley! And check out our breakfast (part I). I think that was a cranberry nut epi loaf and a pumpkin chocolate muffin. After finishing that and sampling a bunch of fruit, we split a butter, lemon and powdered sugar freshly made crepe. Yum.

Such pretty colors! Oh, I love farmers markets...in any city! During our master's program at UCLA, Pam and I would always go to the Hollywood Farmer's Market and get pupusas, Korean pancakes, Thai sticky rice, and kettle corn.

I love the watermelon radish! I haven't tasted one yet, but they are so pretty! I convinced Pam to pick up some kale for kale chips and she made them the next day! :)

If you find yourself in Northern California, be sure to stop in...

Temescal Farmers Market

Sunday, Year- Round, 9:00 am - 1:00 pm
Oakland, California

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Farmer's Market Day

There are several phrases that make me say "What?!" 

They include:

• No dessert, thank you.
• I don't vote.
• Vegan Soul Food (Comedian Hari Kondabolu explains it best)
• I don't watch TV.
• My farmer's market closed for the season.

I saw the last phrase on Twitter and thought, "WHAT?" You don't have a year-round Farmer's Market?! What?! How do you live?!

Oh, I'm so spoiled. I live in Los Angeles and they is a certified farmer's market every day someplace in the County. Just check out this list. And since California is a bounty of lovely agriculture, we have a variety of fruits, vegetables, and nuts. 

Ah, the Golden state. You crazy with a huge deficit, lotsa potholes, unattainable housing prices and earthquakes, but you have farmer's markets all over. All. Year. Long. Love to you, California.

My new year's resolution involves cooking more things that don't come out of a box or package so I picked up a few items. Usually, I pack my car full of fruit (um, and kettle corn), but this time I bought more veggies. I also posted a list of the veggies I have in the refrig to remind me to eat them all - I'll let you know how that works. I gave some to my folks too...in exchange for their Meyer Lemons. :)

(Special note to my friend on the East Coast, R and her family: See what you are missing?! Pack up the car and move back! I'll meet you at the farmer's market).

Some photos from this weekend's Farmer's Market stroll...

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