Brasil - The "Mercado Municipal" (Municipal Market) in Campinas

For me, one of the best things about living here is the Mercado Municipal. Every major city has one.  If you love food, or love to cook, this is the place for you.  One stop shopping.  Fresh fruits, fresh fish, fresh spices, fresh meats, you name it.  Most of the local restaurants will get a lot of their ingredients at one of these markets.  

The mercado municipals in large cities, like São Paulo City or Rio, are enormous.  Others, like the one we went to in Campinas yesterday, are about the size of a Costco. The market in Campinas was opened in 1908 and is the oldest "shopping center" in Campinas, has 143 shops, 98 in the main building and 45 stalls in the outer buildings.  Where the fishmongers are now is the platform next to where the railroad tracks used to be.

Dried beans and more dried beans.
Every type of bean you can think of.

Sausage, bacon, dried meats.
You name it, they have it.  

Every spice you can think of.
Every dried fruit and nut you can think of.
Hot Sauces and Soy Sauces!!

More bacon and linguiça, which is what Brasilian sausage is called.
And there are so many different linguiças, it's crazy - fresh, smoked, spicy, pork, beef, even chicken. 

Fresh fruit.  Every type of fruit you can think of.  And about 4 different bananas at any given time.

Fresh veggies.  Fresh eggs.
This cauliflower, which was bigger than my head, cost only $2 US.

Sardines. About $3.50 US for 2 pounds.
I never even knew sardines came this big.

More fish. 

The fish guys always love having their photo taken with a giant fish.

More fish.
Man, I took lots of photos of fish.

But the best part of the Mercado Municipal was finding this giant gourd at an African religious store.  The seeds are dry inside and the gourds here are used as part of a brasilian instrument called the Berimbau.  

But not me...I am going to sand this baby down, make a hole in one side, and the StenDoodle the heck out of it.  This will be the world's first StenDoodled Birdhouse.  LOL

I put Tim's scissor in the photo so you can get an idea of the size of this gourd.

Hope you guys enjoyed this post.  Let me know!!

~Michael