To market, to market …..

I love a good market. Not the bargain hunting variety such as carboot sales, antique markets or clothing. It is the food markets that have always attracted me – probably because I also enjoy cooking and eating food so much.

My first experience with food shopping at a market was in the early days of my daughter’s life when on Saturday we would go to the Adelaide Central Market with two main objectives in mind – bananas and meat.

At that time Lisa was hooked on bananas and it didn’t seem to matter to her that they were a seasonal fruit and at times quite expensive. Meat was also expensive and where we could bulk buy and then freeze, we took advantage, particularly if it was good quality meat.

The benefit of the market at that time was that it closed at 11.30 am on a Saturday and didn’t open again until 8.00 am the following Tuesday. This meant that what wasn’t sold on the Saturday was often just tossed – so bargains could be had. Food didn’t have the staying power that it seems to possess now, with tomatoes lasting weeks after picking.

For the bananas it was just a matter of walking around and checking who had them and waiting for the prices to drop and then diving in. They always reduced the price near closing as the bananas would not last until the following week.

As to the meat, that was a contest of wills and the fittest. At around 11.15 am the various butchers would commence preparing trays of mixed meats for auction. It was possible to buy a tray of mince, sausages, and lamb chops for $1.00. My aim, however, was always the whole sides of lamb. It was a matter of staking out the best from the butchers and waiting for the bidding to start. Again, we would take home a whole side of lamb for $1.00 and that would last us a month! Chops, roast, mince, stews – all for $1.00. Lamb was cheap in the early 1970’s and chicken was a treat. How things have changed!

Needless to say, now that I’m back in Adelaide the Central Market is still my focus for food shopping. The array of items available has increased with large cheese stores, spices, Italian or French goods, variety of delicatessens, coffee and olive oil supplies. And above all, the fruit, vegies, meats and fish.

I shop using my basket which I bought at an antiques market in Shanghai, China in 1990. Many people comment on it and ask where I bought it. It is over 100 years old but so well made it will last another 100 years.

It was no wonder then that when I found myself living in Manila, Philippines, that I looked for a market. At first my cook, Clare, was not happy with my accompanying her to the market, but she got used to it over time. I only went on those days when I was hosting guests for a meal and just wanted to assure myself of the quality of the food. The food market in Asia is known as the ‘wet’ market. I think this probably relates to the regular hosing of the floor to remove waste, blood, etc. When buying your chicken here, it was bought live and you watched to ensure that the chicken slaughtered and ‘dressed’ was the one you bought. Fish likewise was purchased live where possible. A bump on the head would render a whole fish ready to be cooked, whereas you took home the crabs, prawns and mussels still alive.

A feature of the Manila market was the role of the Suki. This is a person that heads up one of the stalls and customers have their favourite Suki. I think the term ‘Suki’ may come from the Arabic/Malay word for market, ‘souq’. If the Suki accepted you as a regular customer they will pick out the best of items for you and also discount some of the charges. A foreigner was always a target for higher prices, so having a Suki was a benefit.

In Manila I was exposed to fruit and vegetables I had never seen before: rambutans, start fruit, jack fruit, durian, and even mangos. At that time the mango was not a frequent fruit in the Adelaide market. I also found that there was more than one variety of banana – from large fruit used more in cooking than fresh eating to tiny bananas the size of a finger that had paper-think skin and very sweet.

What was interesting about the local fruit was that they all required the removal of an outer skin to eat them. This makes sense when you think of the climate. It was therefore not possible to buy an apple or grapes. For those I would go to Hong Kong and bring them back as hand luggage! On one occasion I bought back grapes and when I told Clare, my cook, that I would like to eat them as a dessert after dinner one night, I wondered why she was taking so long to bring them to me. I went out to the kitchen to find her standing there peeling the grapes! The thought of eating the skin was strange to her.

As to the vegetables, there were all the Asian greens that are now familiar to us even in our supermarkets, but in the 1970’s were exotic and unfamiliar. What was not readily available were potatoes, parsnips, pumpkin.

While working in Manila I would take frequent long-weekend trips to Hong Kong where I stayed in self-catering apartments so I could cook my own food and enjoy the independence from house staff. There was a store there called ‘Olivers’ that had imported items from UK and here I could buy cheese, grapes, lamb meat, etc. I would also visit the wet market for my fruit and vegetables, but the flower market was a key attraction. There were no real cut flowers in Manila to have in a vase in your home. The main flowering plants were orchids, and they were in pots. Otherwise, any flowering plants lasted only a short period of time in the garden. In Hong Kong I could buy roses, sweet peas, daffodils, daphne, poppies, etc. and take them back to my apartment where I had arranged for multiple vases to be available and I could enjoy the perfume for the duration of my stay.

On one occasion in Manila I did manage to buy some daffodils. Word had got around that a man who ran a specialist French food store (open only when he had items to sell and felt like working!) had imported daffodils from France. At lunch break I had my driver take me to the store where I bought 10 daffodils. It cost me $100 USD – yes $10 per daffodil! Mad you say, yes. Particularly when you consider that we drove back to the office with me holding the flowers close to he air conditioner, and then they only lasted one day in the vase. But for a day I saw the happy, sunny face of my favourite flower.

I will write of my experience with the market in Houston, Texas in a further blog.