The Wet Market

Today was my first visit to a wet market.  My friend Leigh took me to the Tekka Market in little India.  I am so fortunate to have a friend to introduce me to this amazing place.  Talk about culture, this was a blast of culture all in one location.  

There was so much to see that we walked around for a while just so that I could take it all in and get oriented.  All of the shop owners were very helpful and liked to explain everything.

We entered the market through the food court and the first thing I smelled was curry.  I haven't been the biggest fan of curry, but I think I could learn to like it here.  We weaved our way through the picnic tables and booths of cooked food to enter the grocery type area.  Fruit, vegetables, fish, meat etc.  We started our journey by selecting our vegetables.  There were so many choices and much of which I can't say that I knew what it was.

I ended up with zucchini, yellow zucchini, beets, cucumbers, baby romaine, carrots, baby eggplant, and tomatoes all for less than $20 sing dollars.  Stop 1 complete.

Some other interesting photos:

 Coconut grinding

 Bean sprouts and other stuff 

 Ramen noodles and lots of them!

What's your favorite tofu?  (they call it bean curd here, E likes it!)

So we got our veggies and we headed to the butcher.  We wanted to get some "mince" (ground beef).  Ground beef here is more like minced beef.  They hand grind it that day, so it's very fresh.  It was $10/kg which calculates to $4.55/lb.  Not too bad for here.  Remember pretty much everything is imported.  Leigh navigated us to her favorite butcher.  Word of mouth is the way to find the best place to get your goods.  I think a friend had told her about this man.

Mr. Butcher (next time I'll have to get his name)

Got our red meat, now it was time for fresh fish.  The fish selection is amazing.  This is one thing that is plentiful in Singapore.  Can't say it's cheap, but there is a lot of it and a lot of variety. 

We decided on some red snapper.  Leigh was going to share a recipe with me that she makes often.  The fish was fresh and we watched them fillet it right there!

 Chop, off comes the head!

 Filleting my fish

Funny, they arranged the heads so I could take a photo.  Nice, huh?  Ah, I had to show reality.  Some folks here in Asia love the heads.  They make fish soup or such out of the heads.  I think i will leave mine.  Not really interested in cooking the head. Ha Ha!

So we went on to get our fruit.  I ended up with a bunch of bananas for $1 ( I think the guy liked me) and 7 ripe Singapore mangos for $10.  Delicious!!  Notice there are only 6, I just had to indulge as soon as I got home.  Yummy!

As we walked away from the market I couldn't wait to come back.  There was so much to see and so much to get that you could go again and again and never get the same thing twice.  You have to like fresh items and be somewhat adventurous.  I'll be back.  Maybe next time I can navigate on my own, but it is much more fun to go with someone.  Thanks Leigh for a great day at the market!!

Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you about the durian fruit.  So the photo below is a pic of the durian fruit.  It is infamous here in Asia, for the smell.  Remember I said in a earlier blog that everything had a fishy smell.  Well, I was wrong, it wasn't fish, it was Durian fruit.  It has a very distinct smell.  They sell the durian as a whole (as seen below) or in packages after the fruit has been cut up.  The scent is strong and to many disgusting.  I have never tried it, but would be willing to try it. (not yet though)  

I'll end with a few Durian facts:

• Widely known and revered in southeast Asia as the "king of fruits", the durian is distinctive for its large size, unique odor, and formidable thorn-covered husk. 
• The fruit can grow as large as 12in long and 6in in diameter, and it typically weighs 2 to 7 lb.
• The odor has led to the fruit's banishment from certain hotels and public transportation in southeast Asia.
• Native to Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia,and the Philippines it has been known to the Western world for about 600 years.
• The name durian comes from the Malay word duri (thorn) together with the suffix-an (for building a noun in Malay)
• Southeast Asian folk beliefs, as well as traditional Chinese medicine, consider the durian fruit to have warming properties liable to cause excessive sweating. (Just what you need here!)

Hope you enjoyed my adventures at the wet market!