I was recently reminded of the Polish “bazarek” and all the nostalgic wonderful food it held for my childhood self
I remember growing up in Poland we used to have a lot of “bazarek” aka bazars. Those would be areas, maybe size of a football field, set up in all sorts of random places near residential districts, filled with various shacks and stalls where farmers and small business would set up shop, selling produce, breads, toys, clothes, or performing simple services like fixing shoes.
I remember frequently going through them with my mom as we’d do the weekly shopping. There was the one place that had the best chicken, another one that did kabanos better; another which had the best pickles (and if the pickles weren’t good that day, the store keeper would tell us). Yet another one that had the better bread.
My most distinct memories are of almost always buying the Kinder Surprise eggs where the storekeeper would actually weigh and give us the heaviest, increases the chances of getting the rare special-collection toy of the month. Also stopping by the toy store to buy any new spider man action figures if they had them – I used to collect those. And sometimes we’d also stop by to get a jagodzianka, a delicious berry-filled polish pastry.
I kinda wish US had those. It’s not quite a farmer’s market, though it had aspects of that.
