ON some Saturdays, I like to go to the Salcedo Open Air Farmer's Market. It is fun to spend a leisurely weekend morning strolling through this tree-shaded market, sharing the colorful sights and delicious treats with friends or family.

If you haven't been there yet, I suggest you drop by. I went at around 8 a.m. and feared the muggy Makati heat, but was pleasantly surprised at the cool, breezy environment shaded by a canopy of mature trees.

The stalls were bursting with fresh homemade baked goods, meat, poultry & fish, organically grown fruits & veggies, brightly colored flowers and yummy desserts.

The first thing I spotted when I got there was a man chowing down a gigantic ensaymada. There were stalls packed with loafs of luscious baked bread, buttery French pastries, and many local rice flour desserts.

Maribel Van Hoven's Bud Bud Gourmet Suman stand offers a great variety of suman. We pigged out on tsokolate suman, a soft and gooey sticky rice bar with chocolate swirls wrapped in traditional banana leaf.

The vendor told me a little secret: rather than unwrapping the entire leaf which can turn your hands into an oily mess, simply open it from the top and squeeze out the yummy filling!

She also convinced us to try some of the popular budbud kabog, which substitutes millet seeds for rice. This sweet treat is not only a very healthy alternative to rice, but we also found it to be extra smooth and creamy.

I saw a brilliant vivid rainbow dirty ice-cream cart. Eating a cone of cold ice cream is a nice way to cool down on a hot summer day.

My Goodness is a brand that sells healthy vegetarian baked goods. It makes an "eggless" version of the classic old-style oatmeal cookies. It also has Miss Figgy's bars.

The chewy Balabar is chocolate-y, while the Gopalabars are low fat and have nutritious yoghurt to energize you on a busy day (or while exercising). These are much healthier than generic energy supplements like Red Bull because they don't contain caffeine and are all-natural.

My favorite cookies are the Old Style Oat Crisps, which are very thin with a lot of texture. They come in plastic tubs and are perfect for Christmas gifts or pasalubong.

Le Petite Breton brings the delicious crepes of Café Breton back on the streets. We watched the chef spread the thin batter on the flat iron griddles. It sizzled and cooked up into a wonderful thin and crunchy golden sheet. She then spread lush slices of ripened mango topped with a dark chocolate sauce. Finally, she expertly wrapped the filling into a neat, sweet and mouth-watering package. A treat, just like in the streets of Paris.

Across was a dairy man selling fresh carabao milk and other products, including quesong puti, pastillas de leche and carabao yoghurt, shakes flavored with fresh strawberries, blueberries and mangoes.

Organic food

The market is vibrant and cheerful. There is a wide variety of fruits, including mini mangoes, sweet and juicy organic lady papayas with flesh sweet and pink, bundles of bananas, and jackfruit (which is now in season, by the way) that was peeled, sectioned and packed right before our eyes, red succulent Baguio strawberries, nectarines and many more.

I am a vegetarian and I love my veggies. I also like organic food because they haven't been tainted by pesticides. One of the most interesting vegetable stalls that I visited was the Herbana Farms stall, owned and operated by Gil Carandang. All of his products are non-GMO and grown without the use of pesticides or chemical aids. He calls his farm in Calamba an "agro-ecological sanctuary".

From his stall this week he was selling vivid fuchsia katuray flower. It's an edible, spicy and slightly bitter flower that will add a splash of color and flavor to your salad. He was also selling kohlrabi, a very interesting-looking light green bulbous plant that tastes quite like crunchy radish.

There were also tiny eggplants, a favorite ingredient in Thai curry dishes. To complete the Thai ingredients, Gil also offered young lime leaves and fresh curry leaves. We bought some of his wild arugula, which is pungent, bitter and almost meaty in flavor, plus the subtly delicious haricot vert which we plan to simply sauté in olive oil, a pat of butter, and a dash of salt and pepper.

Our final purchase was a bunch of cute miniature pico or green mangoes. Gil instructed us to simply take out their pits and chop them up finely (no need to peel away the skin) and mix with chopped tomatoes and bagoong (optional) for a traditional Filipino sawsawan or dip.

Mountain rice

Kalinga mountain rice is 100 percent whole grain and unpolished. It is a good source of vitamins B, E and K, manganese, selenium, antioxidants and phytonutrients. Because it is only harvested once a year, there is a limited quantity. It is grown in the high, cool reaches of the Cordilleras by indigenous farmers in their ancestral stone terraces. George Amparado, who brought this great product down from the mountains, discovered its goodness by accident on a rafting trip with his buddies down the Kalinga river. He didn’t find much food to eat up there except the wonderfully delicious rice of the province, which he claims is "like a meal in itself". Now, he brings a taste of the Cordilleras to us city folk. It sells for P180 per kilo.

Dunn Dy, meanwhile, was selling simple and elegant white ceramic plates, serving dishes, cups and more, which he directly imports from China.

We concluded our paseo with a visit to Michele and Jean D'Orival's La Cuisine Francaise, which brings hearty French regional cooking to Manila. The newly-married Michele honed her culinary skills at the famed Cordon Bleu school in Paris, France. Last Saturday, her tempting spread included a golden roasted chicken provençal, stuffed with cloves of garlic and seasoned with herbes des provence and saffron. She also had hearty bouillabaisse or seafood stew madewith lapu lapu, giant shrimps, squid and potatoes. The slow-cooked duck with orange glaze looked mouth-wateringly marvelous, while the cottage pie made with bacalao or smoked cod looked like the perfect comfort food.

For dessert, we brought home a pear tart made with delicately sliced and glazed fresh fruits and a buttery crust. The D'Orivals also do home delivery and catering.

Salcedo Open Air Market is open every Saturday from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. and is located close to the Makati Sports Club directly across the new Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf in Salcedo.

E-mail me at serenaswam@mac.com