Basically Tiong Bahru is a large triangular marketplace. All around the outside are tiny shops selling a myriad of little things. Women’s clothing (in tiny Asian sizes I couldn’t even fit one leg into), similarly petite shoes, cheap handbags, pyjamas, towels, hardware, pots and pans, live fish and plants. There are a couple of shops selling paper effigies to burn at the temples; perfect paper and cardboard miniatures ranging from tuxedos to sewing machines to sport cars, clothes, shoes and jewellery. The idea is you burn these as an offering to the Gods and you will be rewarded by receiving these items in the afterlife. There are also quite a few Chinese medicine and spice stalls, plus two tiny places selling the unique finely ground coffee powder the Chinese love so much.
Inside the market, one side of the triangle is lined with vegetable and flower stalls, another with fruit and eggs plus pork and beef down at one end; and the third is a large collection of stalls selling fresh chicken, seafood and tofu products. In the centre is opento the sky to let the sunlight pour in. Everything is incredibly fresh, kept carefully chilled on piles of ice or refrigerated shelving, and spotlessly clean. It arrives from 11pm the night before, largely from Malaysia and Indonesia, and the market is open for business from the wee hours. By midday it’s basically all over. Above is a hawkers market where for about $2.50 you can sit down to a meal of soup and noodles, rice, steamed buns, satay, Chinese pancakes, pig organ soup…any Chinese food you can imagine.Today’s purchases included, as always, fresh prawns. I’m not afraid to admit it: prawns are my addiction. In the picture above you can see the 2 kgs (yet that’s two kilograms) I got for $7/kg. That’s 3.50 euros per kilo! Ridiculously cheap and utterly fresh and delicious, the friendly vendor is happy to chuck in some big chunks of ice to keep them cool until I get home. My favourite market day lunch is prawns thrown into a hot wok with minced garlic and ginger and sprinkled with sea salt. Toss until just cooked then tip into a big serving bowl and drizzle with fresh lime juice. MMMMMMM! Only takes about 7 minutes and utterly delicious. Carl and I can eat our way through a huge pile of these babies. Today I bought more than usual but I’ll drop a pile of them together with some chunks of snapper into a smoky seafood chowder for dinner tomorrow, plus there will be enough for lunch too. I also purchased red snapper, at about $22/kg. The fish vendors are always very cheerful and offer to fillet and remove the skin from your fish. They are always surprised I don’t want the bones, head and skin; the Chinese cook these up into all sorts of tasty dishes but frankly it’s just not my thing.
On to fruit & veg: at the back right of this photo you will see a big bowl of rambutans. If you don’t know what these are, they basically look like…well….testicles. Really. Bright red when ripe, they are covered in thick fleshy hairs on a leathery skin which you split open to pop out the balls of white fruit inside. They taste a bit similar to lychees with a touch of citrus. To the left of the rambutans is a bowl of lychees, which look like shaved testicles! There seems to be a theme here…The bright yellow pieces on the right are the pods from inside a jack fruit, which if you see a whole one is a huge ugly green pimply fruit of irregular shape which looks like a deflated rugby ball. Far too big to eat a whole one before it goes off, you just buy a dish of segments at a time. It tastes like banana crossed with mango.
In the middle is a bunch of local (Malay) bananas, deep red/brown in colour and quite short. They are very fat – Carl can’t fit them in his mouth! – and taste incredibly sweet and creamy.
Under the bananas is a bag of ginko nuts, from the ginko tree I suppose. These have been peeled and blanched and you toss them into your stir fry for a lovely soft nutty flavour.
There are a couple of different sorts of green leafy plants, kind of like miniature bok choy or spinach. I don’t know what they are called but there are about 20 different types and I get a couple each week to toss in the wok with sweet ketchup manis soy sauce, garlic and ginger.The long skinny green things are beans which are just like regular ones except they are about 50 cm long! You can ties them in big knots and have all sorts of fun with these crazy things. If ever you need proof that plants thrive in this hot humid climate these ‘Jack in the Beanstalk’ proportion legumes would have to be it.
So that was today’s collection of weird and wonderful things. Next time I’ll pick up a kampong (“village”) chicken complete with head and feet and gross you out!
2 comments:
No you won't if you have mercy on me.
Those very long beans are they the same as Kouseband?
As a Chinese from China, it's interesting to read your blogs talking about local wet market. I am familiar with some of these things you described, but for some others, I also feel the same as you.
Just FYI, "The idea is you burn these as an offering to the Gods and you will be rewarded by receiving these items in the afterlife." It's better to say Chinese people burn these paper stuff for their dead family members or friends, because they believe these could be transfered into real stuff in their world. So if someone was a sports car fan before he dies, his friends may burn him a F1 car. Or just burn some paper money "issued by Bank of Underworld", so they could shopping there. For the candles and inscents, that's an offer to the gods.
Post a Comment