Market bites 

[
      {
        "name": "500x250 Ad",
        "insertPoint": "5",
        "component": "15667920",
        "parentWrapperClass": "",
        "requiredCountToDisplay": "1"
      }
    ]

During the warmer months in Rochester, there's a high probability you will see me meandering down a sidewalk, sunglasses on, tote over the shoulder. If it’s a Saturday, there's an even better chance that I’m on my way to one of my favorite spots: Rochester Public Market. I’m a lover of the market not only for its ability to provide affordable, local products, but also because it’s a great place to eat.

For a city that has many walkable neighborhoods, we don’t really have a lot of walkable street food options — so apart from the few hot dog carts that remain sprinkled through downtown and the occasional food truck sighting, the Public Market remains the spot with the most vendors offering bites you can eat on the move, whether it’s an arancini, donut, or a couple pierogies.

Ahead of peak market season, we curated a list of a few favorite hand-held snacks to munch on on the move.

Empanadas | Juan and Maria’s

Juan and Maria’s is a staple at the Public Market, and for good reason. I could eat through their entire menu of various empanadas and sauces. It’s a choose-your-own adventure kind of setup with no wrong paths: nine different empanadas, a variety of sides and five signature sauces. Although there are close to endless combinations, a personal favorite is the breakfast empanada. Loaded with egg, cheese and a trio of ham, bacon, and sausage, neatly sealed and fried for a perfect morning snack. (A must with their smokey red gold sauce.)

Arancini | Mama Napoli’s

By nature, an arancini is a rather simple, reimagined ‘leftovers’ dish. A rice ball, typically arborio rice, is combined with some variation of cheese-meat-veggie, then fried and often dolloped with red sauce. You can find great arancini throughout Rochester, and Mama Napoli’s Authentic Arancini in the Market is no exception. At a booth inside Shed B, Mama Napoli’s is serving arancini in little boats and topped with red sauce. There’s both a vegetarian version with spinach and mozzarella as well as their classic filled with ground meat, peas, and cheese.

Pierogies | Cherry’s European

When you enter the market from Railroad Street, the first vendor hut you see is Cherry’s European. Serving up Polish-Ukrainian-American Cuisine, Cherry’s offers a mix of breakfast and lunch options with Eastern European influence. As someone who grew up making frozen pierogies after school, I am partial to the warm, fluffy dumpling filled with cheesy potatoes. Cherry’s evokes my childhood after school snack in the best way. Smothered in caramelized onions and served with a healthy plop of sour cream, their snack-sized pierogies are a great snack at any point in a market day.

Waffle Bites | The Gourmet Waffler

When we stumbled upon The Gourmet Waffler we couldn’t resist a walkable envelope of bite-sized waffles. The fluffy pieces, with crispy little edges and a slight citrus flavor, are a sweet treat. The booth in Shed B is operated by Prosper Rochester, a non-profit empowering youth to create and operate small-scale social enterprises. Prosper Rochester’s booth at the market features a few different products to shop, all managed by Rochester youth alongside Prosper's CEO Jill Stolt.

Cake Donut | Duke’s Donuts

There’s a sort of nostalgic magic to watching donuts come out of the fryer, down the conveyor and immediately rolled in a giant bowl of sugar. Duke’s Donuts, located right in the center of Shed B, serves up hot, fresh donuts all day. Although Duke’s apple cider fry cake gets a lot of love and fandom, their contrasting cake donut rises to the top of my list. It’s a fluffy, fried treat topped with crunchy sugar and placed in a little pocket bag — perfect for carrying as you walk through the busy market.

Joe Morrell is a contributor to CITY.