Everyone has one day out of the week that is their favorite; for me it is Saturday. Saturday is sacred in our household. It is the day that Doug, Zoe & I do our big "round-up" of food for the coming week. This week it started off with our trek down to the Halifax Farmers' Market, which we try to visit as early as humanly possible in order to beat the crowds. We picked up our 'usuals' including; bread from La Vendéene, vegetables from several different kiosks, meat from Roselane Farm (spicy pepperettes & coarse liverwurst), eggs and lamb from Bill Wood of Wood'n'Heart Farm, feta from Ran Cher Acres, and yogurt and quark (for the munchkin) from Fox Hill Cheese House. After leaving the market we hit Steve-o-Reno's drive through hut on our way home for our weekly cappuccino fix. With pastries and coffee in our bellies, we were fueled up for our next few stops.

We started with Gourmet Cash and Carry on Kempt Road for quinoa, millet, paneer, and a plethora of spices (sumac, black cumin, etc). We then dropped into the "220 volts", as my husband likes to call it, which is the Indian grocery store at Robie and North. This is where I grab my staple chutneys (tamarind, coriander, mint & green chili), as as well as poppadoms, asafoetida and candied fennel seeds. We walked around the corner and stopped into Local Source Market, owned and operated by Doug's old roommate, Sean Gallagher. After a quick browse we decided on a jar of pickled Daikon made by "Holly Molly Ferments", some incredibly fresh salad greens and stewing beef from VanOostrum Farm. The buzz of coffee and pastries started to wear off, so our last stop on our sacred Saturday was the Mid-East Food Centre, where we picked-up some take-out of stewed eggplant, hummus, tabouli and chicken biryani. With a car full of goodies, food for our bellies and plans for our dinner, we headed back to the "Darkside" to do some cooking.