Central Market

Dashi and Bison burger lunch while the whole central market was celebrating the Citrus Fest

Austin, Texas (January 2016)

If you are in Austin or just moved in Austin or visiting Austin even for few days, the best place to stop by to get the feel of Austin food culture, you have to go to the Central Market. There are two locations in Austin; South Lamar and North Lamar. This is not just a grocery store, but also a food store that you can spend time for some quality eat-hour with your friends and family with good live music. 

The most attractive characteristic of Central market is the FESTIVALS. Every month they have a unique festival designated for a particular food group or food from a certain country. Here is the list;

January: Fresh start

February: Chocolate

March: Bacon

May: Passport

June: Beer

July: Wine

August: Hatch Chile

September: Garlic 

October: Cheese 

November: Holiday

December: Holiday

My husband and I love to have lunch or dinner date in the Central Market. We love all different surprises we get every time we go there. Most of the time we get to enjoy the live musical band. We don't even check the events going on because there will be something going on anyways. The best part is the varieties of food you get to choose either from the cafe or from the soup or salad section or desert/ bakery or cold or hot drinks. Cafe is full of interesting continental meals for nominal price. You get choice from Thai, Italian, Chinese, Indian, Mediterranean, and Texan only to mention some, all in one menu. Where else will you get this special menu!  I like to get the meal (main course) in the cafe and get desert from the bakery. Last Saturday, we went to the central market just to have lunch while we were out for a regular errand. I got myself Dashi; a Japanese broth/soup dish with rice noodles in miso flavor, salmon belly, vegetables like radish, carrot, cabbage and greens. On top of that I added quail egg for a dollar. It was perfect for my hungry tummy. My husband had grilled bison burger with fries. Of course I got few bites. It was juicy, well grilled with well-toasted bun and perfectly melted cheese. It was perfect.

Well we could not stay for the evening for the live musical band, but we just roamed around for a good loaf of bread. My favorite is seed sensation. It is heavenly with butter. As it was Central Market Citrus Festival  going on, our eyes and nose felt good with all the colorful citric views and citric smell all over the place. However, we were good enough not to get overwhelmed to spend money on groceries. However, it was time for me to get a bar of dark organic chocolate. We got couple of those for me before we exit out.