Most of the people who take a class of the cooking school go on a tour of the main market before class, so they can see the different types of local produce, meats, and other items available. This is also where I help do the shopping for the school every morning - though I usually do this very early. I bike into town with a big basket, then do the shopping for the school, then send the basket back on a motorcycle taxi to the school so the women who work in the kitchen can wash and prepare everything before the students arrive.
So when the students are in the market, they are mostly just looking and everything has been bought already.
We enter the market on the far side, immediately passing people with water-filled trays of live frogs, eels and snails. There are lots of shapes of eels - some are as small as salamanders, while others are longer than my arm (and about the same thickness).
Next we enter the produce area, where we see all the different types of vegetables available. Pretty much everything in the market is grown locally. There are lots of different greens: chinese broccoli, water spinach, bok choi, pumpkin stems, etc. etc. There are also plenty of chilies in varying degrees of heat level, though nothing TOO spicy (no habanero here). Bell peppers are also common, as well as all sorts of leeks/chives/green onions. Then there are things like carrots, tomatoes, turnips, bamboo shoots, potatoes, celery, chinese lettuce (woseng), and other stalky type vegetables.
Right now pumpkin flowers are in season, and they are quite cheap here compared to in the US! I bought about 50 beautiful orange pumpkin flowers for about $1 today - we stuff them with a pork mixture and steam them.
Mushrooms are also common, both dried and fresh. Right now there is fresh black fungus, and also shiitake-like mushrooms.
There are approximately 50 stands in the market selling combinations of these things - also garlic, ginger, young ginger....and probably lots of other things I'm forgetting.
Next we pass by several stands selling pickled items which are usually slightly spicy - these are really popular here, and people put them in everything, from noodle soups to meat dishes. Most common are green beans, red chilies, and bamboo shoots, but there are others too, and in various flavors.
There are also lots of stands selling dried items. We buy dried ginseng, chinese dates and wolfberries for the school, but there are all the other Chinese dried foods, though mostly produce (and not seafood).
Next we pass by the BBQ stands where there are roasted geese and pieces of sweet roast pork, as well as things like pig tongue.
There are several stands selling tofu - fresh tofu, fried tofu, little tofu balls, and tofu like things made w/ rice and other non-soybean materials. I am not sure what everything is, but tofu prices are quite low compared to the US.
In the middle of the market there are stands selling live animals - chickens, black chickens, rabbits, geese. You can buy these live and carry them out with you. Or you can bring them to the back of the market where animals are slaughtered and sold. You can bypass the live section too and just go to the back of the market to buy a whole duck, rabbit, goose, chicken......or dog. I still haven't gone up close to see the dogs, but you can see some whole roasted dogs hanging in the back of the market. Apparently if you do go to those stands, you can see the live dogs in cages, and watch the whole process....I'm not sure if I'll be doing this.
Around the village there are lots of dogs, most of which will probably be eaten at New Years if not before - in Ecuador, all the dogs in the villages are very fierce and protective of their properties, but here most are afraid of humans or are very cute and nice. They definitely aren't the family pet. An exception is Pippy, Leo and Kelly's dog, who is a sweet (and slightly spoiled) poodle.
Back to the market: We walk through the butchering section, where there is pork of all sorts, and lots of people hacking away at bones and big cuts of meat with big knives, splashing bits of fat and blood all over the place. There is also some beef, and maybe lamb too...we buy pork for sliced pork dishes, and also another cut for minced pork. You can have the meat minced for a small fee right at the market, which is good for when we have a large group at the cooking school.
Finally we pass through the fish section, where there are a few types of live fish jumping around in small aquariums - sometimes they manage to jump out onto the pavement, and someone will scoop them back up and throw them back in the tank. There are also things like river crayfish, but not too much other seafood - a big difference from Guangzhou and Hong Kong where there was a lot.
There is very little fruit in the market itself - but there are lots of fruit vendors just outside the market, selling both local and tropical fruit (chinese bayberries, lychee, apples, peaches, plums, bananas, mangosteen, pineapple, etc). Mangosteen, though rather expensive in the opinion of most of my Chinese friends, are really delicious so I have been eating them a lot. In the US I don't think we can get them at all, so it's exciting to get to try them here. And they are certainly less expensive here than they would be in the US or UK - but not as cheap as they would be in more tropical areas like Malaysia, Thailand or Vietnam.
So that is the market! After the tour, the students get on the minibus and head to the school to cook many of the things they have seen!
I will hopefully be able to post some more pictures soon. Pam left yesterday, so I am in the house by myself now - so far so good. It has been raining a lot, but it's also cooled down a lot which is nice - I actually had to use a blanket in the night, which was unthinkable last week.
I can't see people's comments on my blog (since I can't view my blog anymore), so if you have anything to say, send me an email to let me know!
More soon I hope!
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