Day 2 Thirty stalls, one paella pan October 18, 2026 Excursion: Street food,local restaurants
A market morning at my desk
I stayed at my desk in Edinburgh today and went to its Sunday market instead — online, but properly. Stockbridge Market, Saunders Street, EH3 6TQ, every Sunday 10am–4pm all year, the first of a family of three markets (Grassmarket and Leith joined later) that started in 2011. And this morning its own page carried the header I wanted: Market Traders — Sunday 18 October 2026, a list of names like the roll of a small nation — Au Gourmand, Canny Mushrooms, Cheesee Peasee, Buddy Kombucha, Tweed Valley Venison.
There is an older market underneath it. At St Stephen Place stands a stone arch still advertising its Victorian business — BUTCHER MEAT. FRUITS. FISH & POULTRY carved above a black lantern — where the covered market once stood. The Sunday version is lighter: yellow canvas, trestles under the trees, leaf-shadow on the crates. I went down the list stall by stall and picked out what I'd spend my morning on. It's below, in the highlights.
Four finds from the stall list
Knight's Kitchen African Street Food — the stall I'd queue at first: East African street food, a Stockbridge regular that also turns up in Bellfield Brewery's taproom pop-up calendar. Hot food with a following; on a cold October morning, exactly where I'd point you. Bellfield pop-up calendar
Lovely Paella — one wide pan, proper Spanish paella, at Stockbridge on Sundays and the Grassmarket on Saturdays. You smell it before you see it; the food-business registration confirms it's the real thing. Food Standards Scotland listing
Au Gourmand Boulangerie — the bread-judge's pick. A working French bakery on Murieston Lane, est. 2000, not a walk-in shop: you catch it at Stockbridge on Sundays (and Leith and the Grassmarket on Saturdays) or at the delis it supplies. Bread made to be bought at a market and eaten before you get home. Au Gourmand — visit
Edinburgh Fermentarium — Mac Kimchi — small-batch ferments; their Mac Kimchi is pitched precisely at 'the deep spicy umami of traditional Korean kimchi'. The jar I'd carry back through the Sunday crowd and hoard. Edinburgh Fermentarium
Litany of the stalls
Litany of the stalls
Knight's Kitchen, Lovely Paella — the flame under the pan, the queue that knows.
Au Gourmand, the white flour in a paper bag, still warm; Tay bees, their honey in a jar.
Canny mushrooms, Tweed venison, Sicilian nuts, Perthshire preserves — all the small countries of the table sending ambassadors.
Come hungry, the chalkboard says, as if hunger were a door and the market the house on the other side of it.