East Bay Baby

Sorry for the long hiatus! We’ve been out of town quite a bit this month. And we were supposed to up to the Russian River this weekend with Aletheia, but then my sister had her baby and my son got a viral infection (yay roseola!). Perhaps it was a blessing – we haven’t had a weekend at home in a month, and we need some time to relax and recuperate.

And the weekend at home gave me an opportunity finally to visit the Union City Old Alvarado Farmers Market run by the Pacific Coast Farmers’ Market Association. It’s held on Saturdays year-round from 9AM-1PM at Alvarado Park (3871 Smith St.) The park is a great venue for the market – not only are there playgrounds to keep kids entertained and to tire them out, but it’s also really shady, which will be nice during the warm summers. My only complaint that the pathways created by the vendors for strolling and browsing are a bit narrow, and oftentimes there are tree roots that make it a little difficult to navigate a stroller.

There are a lot of vendors at the farmers market that sell local fruits and vegetables. Because Union City has a sizable Asian population (particularly Filipino), I would say that the offerings lean toward Asian produce, like daikon, taro, Thai basil, bitter melon leaves, water spinach, pepper leaves, etc. Although I’m Chinese, I was unfamiliar with a lot of the vegetables – but the vendors were friendly and happy to answer any of my questions. Some vendors sell by the pound, others have the vegetables pre-bundled and sold for $1. There were also a wide variety of fruits today – strawberries, peaches, apricots, etc.

They also had some vendors selling prepared foods. There was a tamale/funnel cakes/churros vendor. We tried their churros – they were freshly-friend pencil-sized churros. A portion of 8 pieces was $4, 15 pieces cost $6.50. There was also a vendor selling cumin lamb kabobs and Chinese pan-friend buns and green onion pancakes. The cumin lamb kabobs were $2 each – they were on the small size, but had great flavor. The green onion pancakes were also $2, and it got you a large deep-fried pancake. They were pretty good, but I prefer the pan-friend variety. There was also a kettle corn stand. For a full list of vendors, go to the Pacific Coast Farmers’ Market Association website.

From June 26 to Aug 22, the market will feature a summer concert series with live music. To kick off the program, Mariachi San Jose will perform on June 26th. The concerts last from 10AM-12noon. To see the full program, go here.

I wish I had taken pictures to post on the blog, but I forgot my camera! Next time I go, I’ll be sure to bring my camera so I can post some pictures.

I had a great Saturday morning, and to top things off, we went across the street to Paddy’s Coffee so I could get some coffee while my son enjoyed his churros. This was a very friendly coffee shop frequented by regulars (Paddy, the owner, seems to be a wonderful guy) with great coffee. This will be the subject of another post. This was my first time to Paddy’s, and we’ll definitely back. It’s great to find a local coffee shop that’s not a chain!