Shellfish and the markets. Who could ask for more?

Last weekend, Chris and I decided on the spur of the moment to visit the South Melbourne markets. It was already around noon when we decided this, so we only got there at 1pm. It was a pretty hot day, so most stalls has already packed up.

Nevertheless, we had a quick lunch there (Vietnamese rice paper rolls for me, Chicken Schnitzel roll for Chris) and then headed off to the aisles for a browse. We perused a used book stall and bought some Robert Rankin books, then tried to find a florist that sold little pots of mint or catnip for the cats. Unfortunately, the only remaining florist open only sold decorative flowers. We chanced upon a shop that sold fluffy mocassin slippers, so Chris bought us each matching ones! So cute. Mine are pink and his are black. I just wish the weather was cool enough so we could wear them :/

Our last stop was the food markets, where we decided we could pick up our dinner. There was a fish shop there that I'd bought salmon sashimi from a few months ago, and it gave me the runs for a week :( However, I have a 'never say die' attitude to seafood, so I decided to *ask* them if the sashimi would still be safe to eat by dinnertime. The answer? "Oh yes, this can last a few days in the fridge." Aiieeee... I can't even imagine what would happen if you ate sashimi that had been sitting in your fridge for a few days. I quickly changed direction and bought some fresh pipis instead. We also got some spring onions and fresh turkish bread.

That evening, I chucked the pipis in some water and washed them, then washed and chopped up some spring onions. I fried the spring onions with plenty of garlic, added some black pepper sauce, then threw the pipis into the pan and stir fried the lot. Yum yum yum!!! The smell was so good. Unfortunately, when I was adding a touch of oyster sauce to the dish, a whole heap came glugging out of the bottle. It made the sauce a little bit too salty for my tastes, but all in all, I really enjoyed the fresh pipis and the sauce was lovely with the turkish bread. I'm definitely cooking this dish again! I suppose that's one thing about fresh seafood - if it's really good quality, it's hard to go wrong when you're cooking it.

Here's a random shot of the infamous two-headed cat that lurks around Box Hill. It obviously doesn't like being photographed.

And here's a lovely shot of Mika asleep on my shoulder. That's my blue fluffy robe in the background ;)