News Item:
South Philly tradition continues on 9th Street

The Italian Market in South Philadelphia held its annual festival this weekend, and if you've never been, it's something you have to experience. Sure sure sure, everybody has festivals and art fairs and food fairs all the time, and we go to a lot of them, but they're usually in a park, or on Main Street in a small town, and there's just no comparison.

The Italian Market isn't in just one place, it's more like its own neighborhood. The restaurants, meat shops, produce stands, and street vendors, stretch for about ten blocks along 9th Street. At other festivals, you have the tents and tables that are set up for a day or two. The people in the market are here every day of the year, and that's what gives it its own unique flavor. It's real. The merchants are real, they own businesses here. The people are real, they live here. The food, not just real, but 'unreal'. Pasta in every form you can imagine, fresh fruits that you can smell as they are cut, meats that are trimmed right off of the rack, and desserts that are just plain obscene.

We wandered up the street, down the street, up again, and down again, first sampling and tasting, then devouring. For those from other parts of the country that are unfamiliar with old city enclaves, picture just about any scene from any of the Rocky movies, line the sidewalks along the scene with steaming pots and makeshift ovens, then try to eat your way through the whole thing. You may be tempted to over-indulge... just a little...

Link: 9th Street Italian Market

Cartoon from Sid in the City