Tiangge galore: the Sidcor Sunday market

It all started one weekday while I was looking for an inexpensive alternative to the Buff headwear. I found a seller in Sulit who gave me the option of having it shipped or meeting her at the Sidcor Sunday market at Eton Centris along Edsa corner Quezon Avenue. Not wanting to miss out on exploring a new place, I opted for the latter. :)

Directions:

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1. Ride the MRT up to the Quezon Avenue station.

2. Once there, look out the Eton Centris side (Edsa northbound side) and you should see the Green and white tents of the Sidcor Sunday market. Get down from the northbound side of the station and head left.

A view of Eton Centris from MRT Quezon Avenue Station

3. Turn left again and follow the walk way to the turning circle (rotonda).

A look at the walkway heading towards the rotonda

4. Continue pass the turning circle (rotonda) towards the Sidcor Sunday market (green and white striped tents)

A look at the iconic green and white tents of the
Sidcor Sunday Market

The Sidcor Sunday market is only open during Sundays, as you may have guessed, between 6am to 2pm to be exact. I would advise not to take your cars unless necessary or if you are many or plan to buy a lot of stuff. I am not familiar with the area but when I arrived there at 6am the place was already packed with cars, whether due to buyers or employees of nearby establish,ents/BPOs I've no idea. There are parking spaces in the area but I'm unsure if they'd allow you to park in those owned by private buildings. To get more background you can visit their facebook or multiply pages.

Having arrived there early, I decided to check out the stalls first before going to meet the headwear seller. It was raining moderately so there were a lot of large puddles. I recommend wearing your comfortable clothes and maybe slippers for wet weather these would really help if you want to do a full scoop of the place. That said, at 6am, the sellers were still setting up.

The first stalls I visited sold RTW clothes and fashion accessories mostly for the ladies. There were shirts, pants, shorts, blouses, skirts, bags, wallets and the like. Having gone to 168 and divisoria malls, I found the prices a bit steep but justifiable if you don't want the inconvenience of going to the busy streets of Manila. Although the selection was quite limited.

Stalls selling RTW, children's wear, bags, fashion accessories, etc.

I also found some stalls selling odd products, by odd I mean power tools and other trinkets like those that I saw at 168 like the pocket chair and kangaroo keeper bag organizer. There were also stalls selling "walis tambo" and the "walis tingting".

Still, there were stalls selling pets. From the pet dogs (i.e. shih tzus, chihuahua, etc) that I saw the sellers grooming to attract prospective buyers to cockatiels too numerous for the cages they are in to aquarium fish swimming around in fiberglass ponds, you can find them here as well as the accessories that come with them. Despite this, I still wouldn't advise anyone to buy these here unless you know what you are looking for. For one, the selections are limited, if yoou want to purchase a dog, you can't choose one with the best temperament from a litter of 5 let's say. Or may be there is a better colored cockatiel out there but since there's only one store selling them, you settle for an average one. I also don't think it's fair for the animals to be sold there where their shelter is just temporary as exemplified by the crowded cages and lack of wind/rain protection. As such I would suggest that you just make a purchase at permanent pet stores like those found in Cartimar so that you will be better assured of the choices available and of course, remember to think it through first and be a responsible pet owner!

Some cockatiels for sale

Aquarium/pond fish for sale

Dogs for sale (IMO, it's not humane to keep them
in such cramped cages for 8 hours especially in hot weather)

There were also a wide selection of plants available there. Some odd plants also exist like the famed miracle fruit which can make your taste buds behave funny. The selection was good for odd plants which you can't find in Cartmar.

Food on the left and plants on the right

The best thing i found about this market though was the food selection. Everything from fruits to vegetables to cooked viands cam be found here.  While not rivaling bancheto in scale and variety, it is still very good, I dare say, better than most. The vegetables were fresh and some I found can only be bought there. Fruits were also aplenty, I bought really sweet seedles satsuma oranges for just 35 pesos per kilo. Cooked food was also pretty good, from beef stroganoff to kakanin to lechon can easily be found here. You can even enjoy them under the protection of tents, chairs and tables are also provided. There is also a wet market sellig fish, meat, amd seafoods. What struck me were the stuff like tapang usa (deer) which I regrettably didn't buy due to the high price, php 150 for 1/4 kg and partly because I did not know the sellers well enough to be sure that it was really deer and not some other meat like horse/carabao. I was delighted to come by some goat meat though which I found to be quite elusove in the past. It was sold for php 320/kg. some stalls were also selling the usual food supplememts like ampalaya capsules and even Mangosteem coffee which my mom likes.

Get your fresh veggies here!

Fruits for dessert?

Cooked food for sale. Drinks anyone?

Goat/Kambing meat for sale!

Well 2 hours later, I managed to meet my contact and buy the cheaper version of the buff headwear. Unfortunately, I found them to be too low of quality so just bought 2 for testing.In the end, I ended up buying the original ones which I think are worth it especially in my fishing trips. (but that's for another time). See ya!