Walking Around The Essex Market
I go to this market fairly often with my mother when we need to pick up things like swai (or basa as it's also called) for dinner on Fridays or for when my mom needs things to make sofrito. I've always thought it would be a good place to take pictures, but I never seemed to have my camera with me when we went there. Since I've started walking to and from work (a story for another blog post) I carry my camera with me everyday. I decided to walk around and explore the market and I was able to get some really interesting (in my opinion) pictures.This was the best shot I could get of the stairs going down to the food court area. I obviously would have preferred one without people in the shot (or at least the tops of their heads) but in a place as busy as the market can get (and in big cities in general) there really is no way to avoid having at least one person in the shot. I don’t actually mind people being in the pictures. In a lot of cases it adds something extra to the shot. I just like them to at least be framed properly.
The pizza here (at the Market, not just this particular pizza place) looked really good, but it was waaaaaaay overpriced. I saw one slice with 2 toppings (I can't remember what kind of toppings) for $11!!!! There's a Puerto Rican place in the Market (which wasn't open when I went there) that had mofongo for $16!!! I love mofongo but I'm not about to pay $16 for it. I have become my mother when I was a little girl and I wanted to go out for McDonald's or some other fast food place. "We don't need to go there. We have food at home" 😆 😆 😆 We do indeed have food at home and I can honestly say that my mom's mofongo and alcapurrias are way better than anything I've tasted at any restaurant.There were cool murals all over like the pizza one and this one. It was just so colorful and interesting to look at. The way they’ve fixed up the Market reminds me of DeKalb Market Hall in Brooklyn. I love this shot. I even put it on my Instagram.I believe this was a restaurant located on the first floor. I can't remember what kind of restaurant it was but it definitely deserves an A+ for presentation. When I was in Abu Dhabi I loved going to this place called L'eto Cafe (located in the Galleria Mall). The presentation for everything (food, dessert, even coffee) was just excellent. Presentation isn't everything but it definitely does help get you excited for the (hopefully delicious) food to come.I still haven’t edited any of my Abu Dhabi shots. A big part of it is because I'm a little sad about not being there. Like I've said before, it was a mixed bag for me. I didn't find the people super friendly, my friend had just moved to Al Ain for work about a month or two before I got there, so we didn't hang out as often as we'd have liked so I was alone a lot of the time, and the whole not being able to take pictures thing put a bit of a damper on the trip. However, I liked that I always felt safe, there were things to do but it wasn't crazy busy with people like Dubai, and I found it quite affordable which it can definitely be if you're not going out to expensive restaurants all the time. I went to a few of those but mostly stuck to "street food" as my friend referred to it. Not off of street carts but cheaper restaurants where the food was amazing, the portions were big, and the prices were low.I definitely left happy but I do wish I had been able to try that pizza. Oh well. We have food at home. 😆