These markets can be small, comprising just one enterprising farmer, or they can be quite massive, stretching for many city blocks and offering foodstuffs and almost anything a small entrepreneur can manufacture. Many are obviously well established, and you can buy almost anything you might want, fresh (read live here) or fully cleaned and dressed. And everything is purchased through the art of bartering, so do not purchase if you do not have a local in tow, or you will definitely pay way too much!
I did inquire as to whether or not the sellers of fresh and processed meats were regulated, their product inspected, and the product safe to consume. The safety aspect was confirmed, but regulation and inspection was greeted with laughter. Oh well, given recent problems around the world lately with government inspected meat sold in refrigerated display cases in air conditioned supermarkets, I wonder if buying meat in this type of market is any more risky than what we "westerners" are accustomed to?
So, you can get a bit of a feel for what can be purchased in the markets. These are the ultimate farmer's market, although I suspect that this form of food distribution is much more common than I suspect, and is the norm rather than the exception in many countries. It's just that this is the first time I had been exposed to it.
One could spend many hours walking around these stalls (although the meat stalls soon become a bit odorous), but the veggies and fruits are great. I gave the specialty booths a bit of a wide berth, as I was not particularly interested in snake, bugs, turtles, live chickens etc. etc. One thing I did notice here is that the sellers are very composed and polite. No hawking or screaming at potential buyers. Unlike the sellers who after tourists, as they can be quite verbally aggressive, and very loud indeed.
That, however, is another adventure altogether.
8 comments:
Do you always travel with a stapler?
I find you have to be very careful wandering around those kind of markets - absolutely fascinating, no doubt about that, but you just never know what you might see, especially in the "meat" department. *shudder*
A stapler? Wow, I must really be shrinking in my old age, as that one went completely over my head.
As to the "meat" department - I did not include the really "shudder" photos for fear of scaring off some of my limited readership.
You said that the markets sold staples, so I figured that you must need them for your stapler.
Ha! Good one. Sometimes I am sooooo slow. In fact, it would be a close contest between me and one of your larger turtles! I think I might lose, as I would need to stop for a pint or two along the way.
How fascinating and more so at the moment because the company I work for carries out audits of food suppliers.
One of our newest customers is a group of Chinese Supermarkets - a lot of their suppliers are in China and, although our system is web based, they don't have internet access - so we are having to find different ways of auditing their production sites. Its all good fun!
I would spend hours just wandering, and indeed, wondering what everything was ... Just loved the smells, colours and noise of these places ...
I always ate the food from these places, never once got ill. go for it, you normally cook the shit out of these things, so the heat kills most things !, after all, the money you handle is disgusting in any country !!!!
Kate, maybe the best way to do the audit is to have a personal visit. I think you might find it interesting.
Moon, I am not quite as adventurous as you when it comes to food, but I do agree that whatever I did try was just fine. Never had a problem.
I think China is a little too far for this short haul hippy! I'll happily enjoy the trip via your blog - my friend!
Also some of these suppliers will never pass audit - I wouldn't like to be the one to tell them!!!
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