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South Philly's Italian Market Ready For Holiday Shopping Rush

By Hadas Kuznits

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Vendors and customers at the Italian Market in South Philadelphia are gearing up for the holidays, and they expect things to get extra busy within the coming weeks.

Some vendors tell KYW Newsradio they're stocking up:

"Christmas time is our biggest time of the year."

"Right now they're all trying to do toys and stuff. They still got turkey in their belly. You know, another week or two, they'll really start thinking about it."

What exactly are people buying?

"A lot of salted cod for the bakala for the Christmas dinners."

"The cod fish, that is a lot of work, though. My mother made it and you have to keep changing the water. The 7 fishes on the Christmas Eve night, my grandmother made that."

"Closer to Christmas, we get lots of special filet roasts, you know there's prime rib roasts."

"Cheese, cured meats, and then a lot of traditional Italian food stuffs -- Panettone, which is a sweet bread."

This butcher at Esposito's says a new trend is the "Turducken:"

"A traditional Turducken is a full turkey, stuffed with a full duck, stuffed with a full chicken. Ours is a mini turducken, because it's not practical in a neighborhood. Ours is a little smaller."

And December isn't just for Christmas shoppers:

"We'll be shopping for first night of Hanukkah, so it will be for potatoes and biscuit and lots of sweets and wonderful things."

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