Thursday, October 14, 2010

Bento, Thrift Shop, and Farmer's Market

Our farmer's market is downtown Sarasota, and it's not too far for us to drive, but we don't go downtown too often. When we do go we like to stop at other places downtown, like Whole Foods and The Women's Exchange. So I will share my bento that has some of our farmer's market, and Whole Foods finds, (but not the thrift shop's)

The sandwich is wrapped in a black and white checkered deli wrapper, and fried rice in the pink cup, and carrots(my go to always have on hand color splash). All the rest is fruit. The tiny tangerines were so good and no seeds what-so-ever and the raspberries are almost as big! I have quenepa and muscadine grapes tucked in, all on a bed of green leaf lettuce!

The Women's Exchange is a large thrift shop that is non-profit. All the proceeds go to charities, and the workers are volunteers. Needless to say the shelves are loaded for a great cause.

All sorts of knick knacks, chotchkies, and trash to treasures colorful finds.

These two dishes are for baking apples. Clever huh? I've never seen this before and I grew up in apple country!
I love vintage dishes. I have a few sets of some from the fifties that I love to use. My mom gave me the set that we had when I was a kid, it has little aqua star bursts on it. Anyway a lot of these are just good china or basic everyday, nothing too exciting this time that I was interested in.

I like to see if I can spot a little piece here or there that I might be able to use as a prop for one of my blogs! I didn't have that much time because of the fruit in the car.

My farmer's market find!
I was thrilled to see some quenepa, or mamoncillo, also called Spanish lime.

You don't always see the dark muscadine grapes, mostly it's the green ones. I have never eaten one fresh before (they use it in wine a lot). You eat it sort of like you would a concord grape. It reminds me of the flavor but more earthy and not as tart. You don't eat the skins, they are a lot tougher, but I liked to chew all the goodness out of it.
Thanks for tagging along with me. More fun to come!

17 comments:

  1. So many colors in your bento, awesome! Love to see what you found from your farmer's market. It's nice to know other kind of foods that we don't have here :)

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  2. Neat finds! Wow, Spanish Limes and the Muscadine grapes! I never knew that they existed until now. Do they make Moscato wines from the grapes? Beautiful bento too! :)

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  3. I will ask for more, more, and more for that fried rice in the pink cup hehehe. The thrift shop sounds fabulous, I'm sure I would run mad if you took me there, Lyndsey :D

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  4. Thanks for posting this and taking us along. I'm so impressed. All the kitchen ware available there still looking good and cheap as well. And those fruits look really interesting, have yet seen them here. Are they sour like key lime?
    Kristy

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  5. And your bento looks as delightful and luscious! Have a good day, darling.
    Kristy

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  6. Oh I love quenepas! We got to try them for the first time in St. Croix. They grow all over the island and we would just pluck them right out of the trees. The locals told us that after eating the fruit they dry and roast the seeds and eat them like nuts. That's so cool that you found them here! Yay!

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  7. So fun to come along for your local tour! Bento gives these cute vintage places/pieces a whole new dimension, I'll bet...browsing for the perfect prop and bento inspiration is so fun. And the bento here is fun of snappy charm--and awesome raspberries!

    Wishing you a wonderful weekend, Lyndsey! "See" you next week :D

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  8. Oh I love your fruit finds. Never had either of those. Your bento is so colorful. The raspberries look sooooo good.

    I think those "apple" bowls were also for cooking potatoes.

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  9. Lia - Thanks, I like finding different things in the market that I don't usually have every day. That's half the fun of loving food. :D I like seeing other's foods in their part of the world too.

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  10. Susan - I love seeing different fruits. I believe muscadine grapes are used to make muscadine wine. They grow only in the south, unlike most wine grapes that grow so well in areas on the 42° latitude.

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  11. Ta - wouldn't we have fun? We could bring along a bento filled with just fried rice in a pink cup! hehehe!

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  12. Kristy - so happy to have you along! We could spend a long time there, I only showed a few of the shelves, they had many more. They don't taste like key limes... they are a little sweet/tart taste, but the texture is very strange it's like it's melting.

    And thank you for the nice comment!

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  13. OhayoBento - I haven't tried the seeds yet, but I heard they are good. I guess they are in the same family as the lychee.

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  14. Jenn - So happy to have you along with me for the tour. I often have you in mind when I go to these places looking for cute little dishes like you have in many of your bentos.

    The raspberries were so good, even for being so big!

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  15. Susan B - good to know, I'll have to find some more "new" fruit finds. Yes, I can see the "apple" bowls working for potatoes too.

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  16. What a great place! I love thrift stores. That isa wonderful bento.

    Cheers,

    Rosa

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  17. Lots of goodies in your bento and they look so yummy! The Women's Exchange place look interesting!

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I love my bento friends and I love to hear from you. I appreciate your input, thanks!