Why I judge a country by its markets.

Picture the scene: it’s Saturday morning and it’s drizzling. Not enough to get properly wet, but sufficiently to make you miserable. Oversized, greying pants hang limply alongside equally pale veg, and a hoarse-voiced hawker informs the non-existent crowds of their unintelligible prices. Next door, a gaggle of teenagers weigh up the risks of counterfeit make-up and pick over a selection of expletive-emblazoned t-shirts. Welcome to the Great British market.

                Thankfully, over recent years the British public has been making a stand. Farmers’ Markets are popping up like woodland mushrooms, tentatively proposing an alternative of artisan cheeses, fresh deli goods and a healthy supply of mouth-watering cakes. But here’s what I don’t understand – here in Blighty, these oases for the taste buds have become a privilege, whereas in many countries across the globe they remain a part of everyday life. How many Brits alive today remember that being our norm? My nearest town is named for its market, but the very thought of popping over to pick up my spuds makes me want to put my head in a rotisserie oven. While other nations throng on a bi-weekly basis, ours seem to carry with them a whiff of pretention or poverty.

                When I’m abroad, the local market is invariably one of the first things I check out and I will happily spend hours meandering through aisles of seductive, voluptuous fruit and drooling over wheels of unknown cheeses. For me, a healthy market shows a healthy mentality (and appetite, though I consider them to be much the same thing), community spirit and, most importantly, care about what goes in your food. Surely the weekly shop could be transformed from harassed parents balancing babies and bread, toddlers and tissues to hunting down the best bargain in the fresh air and communicating with real people, rather than a label on a shelf? From a financial perspective, yes, it is a bit pricier, but get down at the end of the day and you can get some great bargains. Beside, there’s a lesson to be learned that looks aren’t everything, even when it comes to bananas. Anyway, I’ll be taking quality over quantity every time.