My Favorite Part of my Week

I love the wet market. I thought I would take you through my weekly Saturday morning at the market.

I walk about 7 minutes in the hot sun (and last week past a decomposing cat), towards the market which is at the bottom of a HDB complex - or a huge complex of public housing buildings (remember - 85% of people live in public housing - not like the US!).

Note = the exchange rate right now is about S$1.40 to US$1.

When you enter the complex, you see a whole bunch of hawker stalls (including this area where my dad was getting prawn noodles in October. Click on the picture to enlarge it - there is so much going on there!). If you walk through the four rows (back to back) of hawker stalls - including pig organ soup, rice porridge, chicken rice, fish ball noodle, and just about every other local food you could imagine - you arrive at the market.

This particular morning, I first had toast with kaya butter and iced tea with only a little bit of sweet condensed milk.

After that, I went to the side of the market that has actual stores. I got eight light bulbs (S$1 each).

Then I went to the store next door that has just about every food you would ever want, and I got tapioca flour and rice flour and coconut milk.

Then I walked through the meat, fish and chicken part of the market (including piles of pig faces, cow's legs, and totally unrecognizable body parts...). I end up at the first fruit guy. I bug green apples for me for S$.40 and red apples for Matt for S$.50.

Then I cross to the next stall - the super veggie guy. He stands on a platform and has just about every vegetable you would ever want surrounding him. From him I got cauliflower, green onion, carrots, pea pods, cucumbers, bok choy, tomatoes and probably other stuff. A HUGE bag of veggies was S$9.

Then I go to this guy and his wife that don't have the best food, but they're so nice, and they always try to name everything in English, so I buy from them each week. I got ginger, red peppers, baby corn, sweet peas, garlic and probably other stuff (S$4).

Then I swing around the back side of the market to the Thai area and get my Thai ingredients (lime, chillis, lemongrass, etc.). She usually just charges me S$2 no matter what I get.

Then to the pineapple guy (S$2/pineapple) and he convinces me to get mangoes and some bananas. This is the most expensive stop (TWO pineapples, three mangoes and about 12 bananas) S$10.40.

Then I can swing by the flower people if I'm feeling it (usually a bunch is between S$2 and S$3). Today I passed that part up.

This week I needed grated coconut, so I went to the coconut grater lady. It's a minimum of S$.50, which is about 3/4 cup of FRESH grated coconut. In New York this is SO much money, and who knows where it comes from! She grated it right there for me!

Onto the tofu ladies who never understand me, though I buy the same thing each week - someone always has to translate for me. Two of the hardest tofu - for frying. It's S$.80.

Finally, the egg guy who sells 10 eggs for S$1.50, S$1.60 S$1.70 or S$1.80 depending on the size you choose.

On my way out I had to stop back at the guy who has everything in the shop at the beginning to get more red peppers and look for more healthy limes.

I then went to the random lady who seems to be a 7-11 without the 7-11 and get milk.

Penultimately, I went to the fruit guy in the hawker market to get cut fruit for me and Matt (watermelon, honeydew and cantelope).

Finally one more stop at the peanut pancake lady - two for S$1.20. It's basically a fluffy pancake with a mixture of ground peanuts and sugar in the middle. It's quite a treat.

Then the hot walk back with the HEAVIEST bags - but such great food for the week!

Jer - though you're traveling and most likely not going to read this until you get back, this one is for you, because you might be the only one interested in this much detail.

I'm posting one of the pictures Shana sent of her baby boy, Joseph, who is having his ritual penis cutting this Saturday morning (past that time here, but not yet there in the US). I'm sure he'll be fine, but I hope Shana survives!!