Winning tip: Fang night market, Thailand

Our stay in Fang, northern Thailand, coincided with the weekly Sunday night food market. From 5.30pm, tiny quails rotated on a grill while their eggs were fried in a doughnut maker, pots and woks bubbled with Thai curries, and stir fries and bamboo sticks full of sticky rice were griddled. Whole salted fish, coils of round sausages and meat skewers were all being barbecued over hot coals. Other foods were ready to go: silkworms, dried shrimps and goong ten, or dancing shrimp (raw translucent shrimps eaten alive with chilli), while green papaya salad was pounded in huge pestles … with as many chillies as you dared.

Helen Jackson

Fez, Morocco

Photograph: Juergen Ritterbach/Alamy

Fez market has to be the best. It’s car-free and donkey-full. The sights, smells and sounds are a wake-up call to all your senses. Our guide Mohammed’s first words were, “Do not lose me as you will never find your way out.” The narrow streets are full of vendors and craftsmen of ceramics, leather, weaving, mending, and food, both to eat there or to cook at home. The donkeys are shod with rubber recycled from tyres to prevent slipping on the cobbles. Handcarts rule – with shouts of “balak, balak” to warn all to move aside as they make their way through the narrow passages. Thankfully we didn’t lose Mohammed and came out the other end.

Kate Hendy

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Machane Yehuda market, Jerusalem

Photograph: Getty Images

When I lived in Jerusalem, I shopped at Machane Yehuda every day. There’s no place quite like it, a real melting pot – especially on a Friday. I had my guy for potatoes, my guy for herbs, two lovely Persian Jewish brothers I bought pots and pans from and Samir, a Palestinian from East Jerusalem, who was my guy for veg. There’s something way more enjoyable about going to buy your dinner every night this way, and that something is the people you buy from. I don’t know why I like Samir so much: he’s just a really nice guy. Every time I go back to visit, I seek him out and go and say hello. Here’s to “The Shuk” keeping its fabulous food and wonderful people.

• en.machne.co.il

Katie Stobbs

Lau Pa Sat food market, Singapore

Photograph: Alamy

For a taste of the colonial among the gleaming skyscrapers of Singapore, head to Lau Pa Sat. The inside of this ornate building has latticed cast-iron pillars, reminiscent of an old Victorian bandstand. Outside, it is at its best at night: when the satay stalls open, the air soon fills with the enticing aroma of sizzling meat. Tables and stools are quickly occupied, and “beer aunties” roam between the crowds selling jugs of ice-cold Tiger. And, as the main market is open all night, it is a jet-lagged traveller’s dream, albeit a hot, smoky and sweaty one!

Joanna Lawrence

College Street book market, Kolkata

Photograph: Alamy

This market sells a bewildering and extensive variety of secondhand books, whose origins can only be guessed at. The booksellers sit on raised wooden stalls peering over randomly stacked towers of secondhand books. I had many friendly conversations with white-bearded vendors about politics, science, religion and literature. I loved watching mothers dragging reluctant first-year university students around trying to find all the textbooks on their reading lists for bargain prices. The Indian Coffee House on Bankim Chatterjee Street, a famous meeting spot for Kolkata’s intelligentsia, provides a welcome retreat, brilliant eavesdropping opportunities and sugary coffee.

Tess

Winter Night Market, Melbourne

Photograph: Nigel Killeen/Getty Images

From June each year, Melbourne’s Victoria Market runs a Winter Night Market that is at once a cheap culinary adventure around the world and an opportunity to have moments of random conviviality with locals and travellers while you queue for your halloumi fries/dumplings/kimchi/paella/froyo. It’s lively and cool but unpretentious; it’s free to get in; there’s often a band that you can listen to with your inventive margarita; and people seem to come determined to have a good time in a particular make-your-own-fun Melbourne way. It’s good for friends, solo adventurers and families of some ages (it’s hard to get around with a pram, and toddlers may need carrying).

• thenightmarket.com.au

Bridget

Pike Place Market, Seattle, US

Photograph: Danita Delimont/Getty

Pike Place is the source of the area’s fresh fruit, fish and flowers. All of this produce is put to good use as Pike’s is home to several independent coffee shops and restaurants that overlook the Pugent Sound. If there is a more perfect way to spend the evening than drinking a craft beer and watching the sunset over Bainbridge Island, I am yet to find it. If you are a fan of grunge music, Pike Place is massively important as it’s opposite the legendary Showbox venue and was also one of the locations in the cult film Singles. Ironically for such an independent venue, it is also the birthplace of one of the world’s biggest brands – Starbucks first ever store is there.

• pikeplacemarket.org

Jennifer

Turkish market, Berlin

Photograph: Manfred Glueck/Alamy

Berlin’s most charming flea market takes place next to the stunning Landwehrkanal every other Sunday. While tourists head to Mauerpark, this is where, to me, the real fun (and bargains) can be found. If you’ve ever wondered where Berliners pick up their unique clothes, answers can be found here. You can quickly assemble a new clubbing outfit from one of the many stalls where hungover Neuköllners are passing on half their wardrobe. There is also plenty of East German kitsch, straight from the attic, beautiful kids’ clothes and toys, and food from Japanese, French and Turkish stalls, which you can eat on the banks of the canal. Go late, like a local, coffee in hand.

• tuerkenmarkt.de

Katie

Mercado de Nuestra Señora de África, Tenerife

Photograph: Helmut Corneli/Alamy

The beautiful market building with its statues and flowers was gorgeous, but more astounding were the displays of seafood, fruit and vegetables. The colour and variety of the produce blew my mind. When you realise that this market was threatened with extinction and was saved by a group of merchants, it becomes even more impressive. Fighting the invasion of junk food and big box stores, they formed a non-profit group and eventually were rewarded by the Canarian Government and the Santa Cruz City Hall for restoring the market as a hub for the community.

• On Facebook

Kate Holbrook

El Mercado Central de Atarazanas, Málaga, Spain

Photograph: Getty Images

El Mercado Central de Atarazanas is the indoor food market in the centre of Málaga, selling fresh local produce. The building is impressive, with a huge stained-glass window at one end, but of equal artistic merit are the displays of seasonal fruit and veg. We watched the fishmongers at work on the latest catch and were tempted by the charcutería and olive stalls. There are a couple of bars inside, opening out on to the street but we retired to an old sherry bar, only a five-minute walk away, to toast our purchases.

• malagaturismo.com

Moira

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