You can get more than (albeit delicious) pork buns, lobster rolls, charcuteries, and underwhelming rotisserie chicken and paella at the Atwater Market this year. Crudessence moved in with its smoothies and raw food wraps and cheesecakes, along with a sausage kiosque from La Fabrique’s foodtruck, Nomade So6. And Fou du Chef (the wild mushroom stall) is also now doing prepared foods.
But the most interesting stop for a filling meal is Marmite Su’l Feu (The pot/cook on the fire/stove) – a line of giant pots full of fish stews, goat curry, rice and beans, served with pickled vegetables (achar) and homemade hot sauce. You can also get their slow-cooked, shredded, spiced meats on sandwiches. And none of it breaks the bank.
The owner is sympa – kind and friendly. He’ll lift the top off every pot to show you the simmering ingredients. The chalkboard sign and menu reads “Please enter my kitchen.” You have to love an invitation like that.
Ile de la Reunion is a tiny, French-speaking island off the coast of Madagascar. The traditional food is a mix of “curries” (though there’s no “curry powder involved, as the sign at the stand says. Instead it’s a blend of spices, as Indian curry is supposed to be too). It’s somewhere between Caribbean and Indian, but it’s not jerk chicken and it’s not roti. And there’s no butter chicken either. No coconut milk in these dishes. Just big stewing pieces of meat and lighter fish with white rice and beans. Lots of chilies. The achar is unique – the yellow-tinged pickled vegetable mix is pungent and vinegary. The fish is perfectly cooked if you get it at the beginning of lunchtime. Nothing can save it by 3pm. Come by noon at the latest. The meat is what you want later in the day.
I got the fish because I don’t eat the other slow-cooked meat they had that day. They usually have 4 simmering away – fish, beef, goat, and pork. All look incredible, and they’re not made with gluten, dairy, or preservatives. That’s something special for a place serving ethnic food that doesn’t go over $13 per heaping plate. For a snack there are samoussas (like samosas) and roasted pork sandwiches with that yellow pickle for $7.50.
How was it? Fresh. The beans weren’t over-cooked. The pickled onions made the dish pop. The fish was even flaky and not rubbery. It didn’t taste like anything, sadly, but covered in all that spice it’s not really supposed to. And they don’t use Maggi flavouring cubes, thank goodness! It’s homemade goodness. Good for the soul.
The rice was horribly over-salted the day I went, but the fish was under-salted, so it almost balanced. Another day and that might be reversed.
This is a food stall you want to succeed. And a food you want to see discovered.
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