Located in the heart of Cairns city, Rusty’s Markets offer a large range of fresh local produce, whilst attracting vendors from Greater Far North Queensland. My earliest food market memories were in Rusty’s Market so I was extremely excited to revisit and do some grocery shopping:) Whilst it’s undergone a major renovation since last time I was here, the spirit of the markets remains the same. Queen Bee, Daisy Moo, Chocolate Queen and I always look forward to market day:)
The first distinctive feature of the markets would have to be the presence of various tropical fruits. Scattered amongst the regular fruit choices are jackfruit, soursop and sapodillas.
Pretty strawberries
Being able to pick my own strawberries leaves me feeling liberated from the punnet.
Chocolate Pudding FruitI know this fruit as Jackfruit. It’s filled with little parcels of sweet yellow flesh, each encasing a nutty seed.
The start of Mango seasonI miss Cairns when I’m down in Sydney sometimes, for a number of reasons, mangoes is one of them lol.
A Daisy Moo favourite – pineapple
Sapodillas
Paw Paw
SoursopI’ve only ever had a soursop once, and I remember that even though it was a little bit sour, the flavour just tasted “tropical’ to me, and the flesh was white and velvety.
For thirsty shoppers, there a many great things to try:
Fresh coconut juiceThis lovely guy opens up the coconuts for you:D After I snapped him doing his thing, he jumped at me and screamed BOO lol. Those who know me can imagine the shriek that came from my mouth lol.
Sugar Cane JuiceCoconut juice man also runs this sugar cane juice stall (conveniently right next to eachother lol). There’s a machine that squeezes out the juice from the sticks of sugar cane. Queen Bee makes a great sugar cane drink so this really appeals to me:)
Fruit wine from Pacific BlueOn a more adult note, I found a cute range of fruit wines! Flavours included mango, lychee, feijoa, and lime and chilli. The lady at the store took quite a liking to Queen Bee and I, and plyed us with samples of wine for an extended period of time:) (No doubt to coax a mass purchase lol)
Soap stallI find these markets quite diverse, with products such as soap, jewellery, clothes, massage and antiquities for sale plus the regular food and drink stalls, there’s even a local clairvoyant!
After meandering through the maze of stalls, we came home with bagfuls of food, including kipfler potatoes, purple sweet potatoes, a pineapple, a rockmelon, a range of asian greens, some baklava and mango wine:D I love these markets!
Rusty's Markets
Open 6.00am Friday, Saturday and Sunday
Sheridan St
Phone: (07) 4051 5100
http://www.rustysmarkets.com.au/
http://pacificbluewinery.com/index.html
2 comments:
Oooh I'm just lusting after all of that gorgeous tropical fruit!
i do enjoy a good pineapple :D
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