Sunday, 12 October 2014

Batman Market - an exciting new market in Coburg

Yesterday Sylvia and I ate french toast and rode our bikes to check out the new Batman Market.  It was busy and buzzing and great to be there on a sunny Saturday.

It being the first day they had held the market, we started with a reccy to get the lay of the land.  It is not a farmers market nor a craft market nor a fete but it felt like combination of all three.  But more festive than farmers. 

The first food that really enticed me were these spicy chickpeas.  Gorgeous presentation.  I bought a cone.  They had chunks of fresh coconut in them too.  Delicious.   I overstretched myself with mozzerella filled arepas and ended up taking some of the chickpeas home. 

I had never seen arepas for sale before.  Which might be why I neglected to see that I should have topped them with a bit of salsa.  Loved them but they would have been even better with salsa.   I would have loved some of the sangria too.  It was non-alcoholic but we were juggling too much by then.

It was hard to go past the seasoned corn, wood oven pizza, dosa and okonamiyaki.  Sylvia had a potato twist.  The above photo is of the people at the food stalls.  They were really busy.  Some places had queues too long for my patience.  But not all.  In the background you can see one of the industrial buildings surrounding the market.

We enjoyed all the entertainers: dancers, bands and the Chinese dragons.  The act that got most of our attention was the circus act where the guy rode an eight foot unicycle.  He had a great patter and amused us further by taking off his suit and then juggling knives while on the unicycle.  He was crazy!

Some of the craft was great.  I really loved these cute owls.  The dresses made out of day of the dead fabric were pretty special too.  However I don't look too closely at the craft so I can't remember more of it.  I need to eat but I have nowhere for any more craft in my house.

This dosa stall seemed the hippest place to sit with festive bunting and cute cane chairs.  However if you didn't get a seat here there were quite a few other places to sit and enjoy some food and entertainers.

We needed a seat to eat our ice cream.  Sylvia wanted a plain old ice cream in a cone but I was too tempted by the syringes at N2.  Vanilla honeycomb icecream with caramel sauce in a syringe.  Mmmmmm.  I felt a bit sorry for Sylvia but not that sorry when she was having fun squirting sauce over her ice cream.  It was really good.

A few stalls were selling food for the home.  Grumpy Gary's hot sauces sounded good but I have enough hot sauce to get through at home.  And the smoky sauce was a bit spicy for me.  We bought banana chips at the fruit and nut store and a currant bun and a pretzel at the bakery.  The loaves of bread looked really good.  We also got spring onions at a vegie stall but sadly the strawberries were sold out when we returned there.

We had a great time at the market.  It will be held every weekend on both Saturday and Sunday.  This sounds ambitious to me but the market is certainly bold and big.  I wonder if it would be so busy  after the curiosity factor has worn off.  Yet they have put a lot of work into promoting it and have a large space to develop it.

It is a great place to take the kids or your friends - face painting, bouncy castle, balloons, entertainers and spaces to sit and enjoy some good food.  The stalls are quite eclectic and interesting.  Hopefully it will prosper and attract more stalls.  I look forward to a return visit.

Batman Market
14-22 Gaffney St, Coburg
(By Batman train station on the Upfield line)
Tel: 1300 284 787
Opening hours: Sat and Sun: 9:00am - 3:00pm
www.batmanmarket.com.au
Posted by at
Labels:

23 comments:

  1. Kari13 October 2014 at 02:51

    My goodness - what an amazing selection of food! The corn in cones is a lovely serving option and that ice cream looks like it belongs in Heston Blumenthal's kitchen. It sounds like you have a great new market to add to your rotation.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Johanna GGG15 October 2014 at 21:43

      Thanks Kari - it is hipster food when the chickpeas are in the cone instead of the ice cream - am sure Heston would be proud

      Delete
  2. Gluten Free Alchemist13 October 2014 at 04:28

    That's one cool market! Such a shame it's on the other side of the world...... not sure I could justify the plane ticket (but sure wish I could!)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Johanna GGG15 October 2014 at 21:43

      Thanks Kate - go on buy the plane ticket - there are so many places here you would love - honestly!

      Delete
  3. Hotly Spiced13 October 2014 at 07:35

    This looks like it was lots of fun. I do love the look of the chickpeas and I keep seeing things with syringes in them. These sorts of occasions are always great for trying old favourites and something new xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Johanna GGG15 October 2014 at 21:44

      Thanks Charlie - I didn't know syringes were the latest thing but I might have guessed by how popular this food stall was

      Delete
  4. Nat @ Appetite Affliction13 October 2014 at 15:13

    I doubt I would have been able to resist the syringe either! I'm a sucker for novelty food :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Johanna GGG15 October 2014 at 21:45

      Thanks Nat - novelty food is fun - and I think there is the fear I will never have the chance again :-)

      Delete
  5. Veganopoulous13 October 2014 at 16:27

    it looks great! Wish I could have gone. Hopefully I'll get to it soon and do a bit of a vegan tour!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Johanna GGG15 October 2014 at 21:45

      Thanks Veganopoulous - will look forward to your vegan tour - at least it being open every saturday and sunday will make it easy to find a time you can go

      Delete
  6. Katie13 October 2014 at 16:38

    What a great market. All the food stalls look amazing. I'm so jealous. We have nothing like that round here. Love the sound of the arepa (never had ones of those) and the chickpeas

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Johanna GGG15 October 2014 at 21:47

      Thanks Kate - I have only ever had arepas before when I made them so I was curious to taste one from a South American stall - if you have masa harina they are quite easy to make. And then you will feel like there is trendy food in your neck of the woods (even if only if your kitchen)

      Delete
  7. coconutandberries13 October 2014 at 21:28

    Looks like a really fun day out. I really should check out more of London's markets. I tend to stick to my local farmers' market but there's a lot more on offer elsewhere.
    The ice cream with the syringe is a fun idea. Reminds me of something I saw on the Great British Bake Off recently (do you know that programme?)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Johanna GGG15 October 2014 at 21:48

      Thanks Emma - I have heard of the Great British Bake Off - I think it is shown here and we also have a local version but I haven't watched them because the timing and the channel were wrong for me.

      I love trying other farmers markets - many farmers markets around us are only once a month so it encourages going to different ones - this market is not a farmers market but I hope they might get a bit more farmers market style food esp on the weekends that our local farmers market is not on

      Delete
  8. Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella14 October 2014 at 08:51

    What a fun, colourful with a great selection of food!:D And looks like you had a great day for it too!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Johanna GGG15 October 2014 at 21:49

      Thanks Lorraine - the weather was perfect for it - though I did managed a little sunburn (at least we were wearing hats)

      Delete
  9. Unknown14 October 2014 at 11:06

    This is the funnest sounding market ever! I have never heard of anything like it before. The food and vendors all sound great =)
    Love the syringe caramel sauce for the ice cream!
    And chickpeas out of a cone? Yes, please!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Johanna GGG15 October 2014 at 21:52

      Thanks Kimmy - actually this market reminded slightly of another local market that closed after some time but the batman market seems to have far more effort in the marketing which is so important when there is so much else going on. The chickpeas in a cone were fun but not so practical when juggling lots of stuff

      Delete
  10. Anonymous14 October 2014 at 20:37

    I almost went to Coburg on the weekend to visit some markets - not sure if it was these ones (was going with a friend), but we ended up going to my local farmer's markets at the Collingwood Children's Farm instead. These ones look amazing and now I will definitely have to make sure I make it out for them! It's cool they are on every weekend (but like you say, perhaps a bit ambitious? Time will tell!)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Johanna GGG15 October 2014 at 21:53

      Thanks Caeli - was it an anniversary of the Collingwood Children's Farm market - I love that market but haven't been there for ages - I think it had started before lots of the markets around here but now we are so spoilt for choice. Hope you get along to the Batman Market

      Delete
  11. Cakelaw14 October 2014 at 20:50

    Everything looks fabulous! I'd love to make the trip one weekend to check it out.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Johanna GGG15 October 2014 at 21:54

      Thanks Cakelaw - it is probably a bit of a hike for you but there does seem good public transport there and quite a bit of parking

      Delete
  12. rika@vm21 October 2014 at 14:54

    What an interesting name for a market! I actually live in Coburg area, funny! That’s a pretty awesome market, I love that it has crafts and food altogether! These are way too cute owls, I love them and I would go for the ice cream with the syringes, lol! That reminds me, I need to check the market soon, I haven't been there this season just yet (it's Fall) and today was crappy weather ;(

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for dropping by. I love hearing from you. Please share your thoughts and questions. Annoyingly the spammers are bombarding me so I have turned on the pesky captcha code (refresh to find an easy one if you don't like the first one)

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)