8 weeks of clean living

The La Jolla Farmers’ Market is a great place to pick up some fresh local fruits and vegetables, as well as a surprisingly diverse array of knickknacks, jewelry and other curiosities. I hopped on the MTS Route 30 bus this morning to go grab some lunch and pick up some supplies for dinner.

My favorite place to go for lunch at the market is Belinda’s Cocina. Belinda has a wide array of really great Mexican food (the selection has expanded quite a bit over the last year), and—especially exciting for a vegetarian—she has the best chile rellenos I’ve found in San Diego. She also has containers of homemade salsa that you can purchase. Apparently her recipes have been catching on: she recently catered large gatherings at La Jolla Country Day School and Balboa Park, as well as several house parties in La Jolla. Unfortunately, Styrofoam containers are in pervasive use, so if you’re feeling environmentally minded bring your own plate.

Another great spot is the Petrou Foods booth, selling what Mr. Petrou claims to be the best olive oil and balsamic vinegar in the world. He says that the quality is a result of his long aging process and the fact that Temecula (where his olives are grown) gets “326 days of sunshine a year.” I picked up another bottle of balsamic vinegar to shore up my dwindling supply.

After having lunch at Belinda’s I came home with the aforementioned balsamic vinegar, as well as some fresh pasta from Peggy’s Pasta, a mini ciabatta, two apples, an onion, some Cremini mushrooms, fresh Parmesan and an olive spread that goes perfectly with the ciabatta. To see the rest of the pictures I took, check out my La Jolla Farmers’ Market photoset on Flickr. If you live in the area, you owe it to yourself to check it out!

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 1st, 2007 at 7:00 pm and is filed under Food, Local. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.