Reading Terminal Market

It seems like half the bloggers I follow have been doing posts on their local markets. Although it's been done a zillion times before, here's my happy place: Reading Terminal Market!

I tend to enter the market on the south side, from the SEPTA Market East Station. That means my first stop is Iovine Brothers Produce.  Price and selection are always excellent and many items, particularly things like scallions, parsley, and so forth are often half what they cost in my suburban supermarket.

Sweet Corn, Apples, and More

What kind of potatoes did you want?

Featured Produce

Assorted Fruit

Just to the west of Iovine Brothers is the deservedly famous pastry shop of Termini Brothers. There is nearly always a line down the front of these counters so this picture is a small miracle!

Cake!

Opposite Termini Brothers is the chocolate wonderland of Chocolate by Mueller. If you watch Bizarre Foods, this is where Andrew Zimmern tasted the chocolate covered onion.

Chocolate!

Just around the corner to the left is Downtown Cheese. And yes, Andrew Zimmern stopped here too. Between Downtown Cheese and DiBruno Brothers you could probably source just about any cheese on the planet.

Cheese and Salumi at Downtown Cheese

There are three fish dealers in Reading Terminal Market. John Yi Seafood is generally my "go to" for most things like diver scallops and other shellfish. Wan's Seafood is pretty comparable and if I don't see what I want at John Yi's Wan's will probably have it. Finally, there's Golden Fish Market, today's destination.

Whole fish at Golden Fish Market

Golden Fish Market had one huge advantage for me today - they tend to leave things like tuna in big pieces instead of slicing them into steaks. Like this:

Come to me my pretty...

That smaller piece of Ahi on the right weighs a bit over two pounds and is in my refrigerator right now waiting to become tonno sott' olio.

Of course those are just the places I tend to always check out. There still all the Pennsylvania Dutch vendors (who are closed on Sundays), Bassett's Ice Cream, a couple bakeries, the coffee roaster, the cookie place, about 20 restaurants, at least four butchers, the flower shop... Oh yea, there's the Italian Market too, just about 11 blocks south.