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Community, Markets and Stalls, Parks, Shopping
Narra Market - A great way to spend your Saturday mornings
Last week my sister and I went to the Narra Market for the first time. We’ve known about the Narra Market (and its siblings, the Salcedo Market, and previously the Legaspi Market) for a long time now, and we’ve always intended to go, but we never seemed to get around to it. I’d always find myself in Narra Park on a Sunday, see the tents from the previous day’s market, and remind myself to go, to no avail. Perhaps we took such a long time to actually go because neither of us are market people, and we both hate having to haggle for anything, which is, unfortunately, how you’re expected to do things at markets (to find someone who really knows what he’s doing when he visits a market, check out Market Manila, where MarketMan has a post on the Salcedo Market).
The thing that finally brought us to Narra Market one fine sunny morning was salad dressing. My sister wanted to find some salad dressing that we’d once come across at the Alabang New Life Christian Center Bazaar. She didn’t find it there, but we found a lot of other goodies instead. (Incidentally, being a hopeless collector of brochures and flyers, I still had the contact numbers for the salad dressing she wanted: Goolai Salad Dressing, available from Ms. Jennie Misa at (0917) 812-3095 or 807-2703; I’ll get her elusive vinaigrette one of these days.)
To keep from being overwhelmed, we market novices decided to make the rounds first before actually buying anything. That wasn’t too difficult, given that the Narra Market only occupies a hundred or so square meters of makeshift-tent-covered space.
We determined that it had an eating area, with some tables bordered by cooked food and drink vendors; a vegetable section around one side of the perimeter, some areas outside the tents that sold furniture, pots, and gardening supplies; and, within the center of the tents, vendors selling baked goods, rice, cooked paella, virgin coconut oil, herbs, even bagnet.
Before we came to the market, a number of people had warned us that the goods were more expensive than those you’d find in other markets. Asking around probably would’ve confirmed that they were right, if only we’d known what to compare the prices to! In any case, since most of the items being sold were unique in some way (being organically grown, specially made, or with some kind of expensive and hard-to-find ingredients) we only expected the goods to be sold at a premium.
For us, the thrill was to be able to find some things that you’d be hard pressed to find elsewhere nearby (like the live herbs in small pots, which were going for P150 each, compared to the monster basil pots sold in Town Center for P250) or to be able to buy a single tomato or four pieces of green beans (which you can do in some supermarkets, but not always) for that single dish you plan to prepare later in the day.
We made our rounds and took home the following loot: a bag of mesculun greens with 6 different kinds of lettuce (P45), small packs of Thai basil and kaffir leaves (P25 each), a handful of Baguio beans (P5), a bunch of asparagus (P45), a couple of small round eggplants (P12.50), a roll of the famous Sanctuario raisin bread (P75), some salad tomatoes (P25 for 2 pieces, P90 per kilo), a couple of cooking tomatoes (P4), five pieces of flavored suman (P100), a ton of freshly cooked bibingka (P50 each), and some whole wheat pandesal (P40). Someone was obviously planning to have curry over the weekend.
We also had some coffee from Kape ni Juan, a coffee dealer and caterer: 50 bucks for a cup of Benguet coffee, and 60 bucks for a Mocha Prap that tasted like they used Chocnut in it. With our coffee in tow, we headed off to the fountain and benches just beside the tented area. It was the first time I’d actually seen the fountain on.
All in all, it was an excellent and fun way to start the day, and it made us lazybones feel like we’d already accomplished something so early in the day (the market starts at 6 AM and ends at 12 noon). Let others say we’re “playing market” (which we are, pretty much). We’ll be back to enjoy ourselves and try out the other goodies this week
Narra Saturday Market
Narrra Park, Ayala Alabang Village
6 AM - 12 noon
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15 comments for “Narra Market - A great way to spend your Saturday mornings”
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Great photos- the Narra market is my local market, and my husband and I try to make it there every weekend. I love southbound, by the way- especially your restaurant reviews.
Hi Lorraine! Thanks, we enjoyed visiting the market and taking all the photos–the riot of colors from the fresh produce helped make the pictures all the more appetizing!
We were back this weekend, though this time we just had some bibingka and goto for breakfast, chased down by Kape Amadeo and fruit shakes. Oh, and we got blueberries from the corner stall as well. They also had gi-normous strawberries!
Thanks for being a regular on Southbound, and let us know if you have any places you’d like to see featured here. :)
What a pleasant surprise to discover your blog, and to discover that you featured our Kitchen Herbs organically grown culinary herbs and 6 lettuce -plus-arugula mix at the Narra Market! And the pictures are good!
Let me know if you have any questions related to culinary herbs, lettuce, as well as chemical-free growing, which I am a strong advocate of.
Will surely follow your blog.
Since your blog is southbound, let me point you to an excellent restaurant in Santa Rosa, which is where I live and grow my produce. It’s called Kanin Club (or have you featured it already? ) located in Paseo Santa Rosa, at the back of Cafe Breton. A good indication of how good the food is at Kanin Club are people who patiently wait for the next free table almost every lunch-time and during week-ends. I’ve heard of people who come all the way down from Tagaytay just to eat there. They have so many choices of great dishes. My favorites, so far, are the green mango salad with cilantro, the lemon chicken, squid stuffed with kuchai, and the ginatang sigarillas. Try the place!
Oh, by the way, I also supply them with some of my organic produce.
Gerardo Jimenez - Kitchen Herbs
hi gerardo,
welcome to southbound! we enjoyed our first outing at narra park, and discovering new stuff–and i believe you were the one manning your stall that day! ;)
thanks for the heads up about kanin club. my sister has also mentioned this a number of times, but reading your comment makes me want to run out and try the green mango salad with cilantro, yum! we’ll definitely check this out the next time we’re in sta. rosa.
Yes, the Kanin Club is one helluva restyo. Resonably priced, but the best Filipino food I have ever tasted. I highl recommend the crispy patta, spicy mussels in curry, and the crispy liempo.
The chef was out on the dining floor yesterday getting pats on the back from just about everyone there.
They will be opening a branch in Alabang soon, so us Makati-folk won’t be having to drive all the way to Laguna for their mouth watering good food.
Keep up the good work.
Raymond
hi raymond!
thanks!
yes, i heard that they’re opening in alabang soon… all the more reason for us to try out the original one! :) i think this long weekend will find us in sta rosa at kanin club! ;)
Hi Gerardo!
Aside from Narra Market, where else to you sell your plants? or better yet, can you give us the address and phone no?
nice pictures. surely visit that market.
I want to know where the narra market is located i am planning on going their since my name is lorraine narra
beng,
let me contact gerardo to get permission to post his contact details here. :)
jenny,
thanks! hope you find lots of stuff when you visit. :)
lorraine,
narra market is held at the narra park inside ayala alabang village. the village entrace is along madrigal avenue, near alabang town center. from the madrigal gate(you’ll have to leave a license or id), take the first right (yakal street), then left at molave, and left again at narra. there are parking spaces near the park. enjoy your visit!
btw, we’ve posted two articles already on kanin club… check them out here and here.
Hi Betty, does Nara park still hold saturday morning markets?:) Do they carry organic vegetables?:) Thanks again!
hi kristy,
i haven’t been to the market myself in a while, but i think it’s still a regular thing every saturday. some stalls (a lot of them, actually) carry organic veggies. just ask the stallholders how their produce is grown.
there’s also a small market (not sure if they have organic veg or conventionally grown stuff) held in the corte de las palmas parking lot of atc held every first thursday… i think… i’m not so sure about the actual day, best if you call the atc concierge to ask (772-1860 / 842-2782).
hope this helps! :)
Thank you Betty!!:) I’ll try going to the saturday market and check it out sometime!:)
Hi Betty, I would like to know if you have the contact numbers for Nara weekend market, I would like to put up a stall as well. At the moment I live in Thailand and arranging to visit Manila. Thanks
Hi! I just found your blog while googling for vegetable gardening in the Philippines. We are moving to Ayala Alabang on Sunday (my husband just signed a rental agreement yesterday) from America. I’m so glad to hear there is a market like this. I plan to do a lot of veggie gardening myself, but I’m sure I’ll be by to “fill in the gaps.”