Down the Street

To market, to market 

to buy a fat pig

Jiggedy-jig. 

The first round of pictures are at new world garden market. The first floor has been remodeled yet again--I feel like that place is under construction every other month. Now, there's a little coffee shop on the first floor. Pretty crazy when you consider its surroundings. Upstairs is where all the drinks, dry goods, dairy products, and household items are sold.

I went to the meat counter, asked for a pound of lean ground beef. She picked up the hunk, chopped off a section, and then put it through the machine. All without gloves. It says a lot that I accept the bag of meat, with blood on it, without batting an eye. That would not have happened five years ago. The current check out system is different, but we used to have to pay the meat lady directly--and that was an added level of grossness (exchanging bills and coins).

Let's play a game! Identify the meat below. 

I usually buy skinless chicken breasts here---they are inexpensive compared to beef. 

Willow snagged some kuala yummies.

She is learning how to stay warm all over again. Willow is a child of the summer and doesn't enjoy bundling up, or the cold temperatures. And it's only October!

You can see the new coffee shop in the background, where the meat counter used to be. To the left is fruit and vegetables, and in the center is the egg lady. She's texting.

Everything is washed, wrapped in plastic, and pre-weighed/priced at this place. I prefer the other vegetable market to buy produce, since it is so cheap and the quality tends to be a lot better.

Willow gets lots of comments about her owl hat from locals. 

Does anyone know how they did this to the apples? I think they put stickers on the skin when they're growing and the sun dyed it this way....? I have no idea, and Adam didn't know either. 

I believe these are called hawthorns. They are very bitter, although are good in candy and tea.

Please notice that the cherry tomatoes are in the fruit section. Yes, they are considered fruit here (because they actually are fruit) and are sold in the correct department. Also, people eat them as a dessert, appetizers, or snacks here. Goodbye mozzarella sticks and cheesecake. Hello tomatoes.

Check out the egg pictures. All sorts of eggs being sold. In the picture above, you can see quite a variety sorted into different baskets. Directly below.....what are those? Yes, that's right. Pigeon eggs.

Any guesses at these eggs on the left? I'm not sure what they might be. I'm almost positive that the eggs on the right (blue-ish white) are duck eggs because of their color and size (they're bigger than chicken eggs). But what the heck are those dark monstrosities on the left? What bird extrudes that egg?

These pictures were literally shot from the hip. I was holding Willow on my hip at this point, and holding my camera below her. I just started taking pictures as we walked around--not having any idea how the pictures would turn out. It was kind of fun....I don't think anyone knew what was happening....unless they heard the shutter.

That machine in the background (above right) is toasting sunflower seeds. It's pretty loud as it spins the seeds around and dumps them into a basket.

Walk into the other little market. It's one room, but has lots of stuff. There are counters all around the walls, and then stands in the middle of the room. On one of the outer counters was this tray of tofu being sold. I like how the butcher cleaver is left out for anyone to use. No hazard or threat of danger involved, apparently.

Noodles in stirofoam boxes.

Look at the size of those leaks! My Korean grandmother would be excited.

the bathroom on the other side of the market. scary. 

Love how this boy is getting a ride on this lady's bike. 

I like this last picture. It's a street sweeper's cart--you can see their tree branch brooms with bamboo handles that they make and use to clean the streets. Whoever this sweeper was, he/she had a lot of other stuff going on in his cart. Looks like maybe some recycling was going on too. Recycling is done very differently here--people collect products to recycle to earn money. For some people, looking in trash cans and along the streets or busy venues for stray recyclable items is their main source of income.