Market Thoughts

It’s the season of Farmer’s Markets and roadside stands brimming with fresh fruit and vegetables. At the orchard we are in the midst of our mid-summer abundance and I should be making jam and freezing berries but it’s too hot.
I started thinking about markets that I’ve visited in other countries. One of my favorite pass-times when traveling is to check out the local markets. Some of the most memorable were in Thailand. In every city or village I found fascinating markets.
In Bankok I visited an enormous, high-ceilinged warehouse filled with individual stalls heaped with every imaginable variety of vegetable and fruit. Huge baskets and bags of chilies—red, yellow, green, all sizes. I was told that the tiny green ones are the hottest but I didn’t try them.
I did sample a few new things, two kinds of tamarind, one sort of sweet and sticky, tasting something like a prune and another that was crunchier and not sweet with little flavor. They are both encased in pods looking like fat beans. Another food that I sampled and won’t need to try again was hard boiled egg yolks soaked in a sugar syrup. They were teeth hurting sweet and I’m not a big fan of hard boiled eggs anyway.
One interesting fruit that I tried is the Durian. It is a large fruit with a spiky outer husk and a strong odor. Some have likened it to rotten onions or gym socks. Many hotels and much public transportation in Thailand have banned it. It is native to parts of Southeast Asia. The flesh, once past the odor is surprisingly tasty. It is like a rich custard with a sort of almondy flavor.

A market in the city of Chaing Mai, in addition to fruits and vegetables had displays of pig’s snouts, chickens with heads and feet, dried fish, live fish, dead fish, and smoked fish. There were mountains of food.

In one market a man was preparing “jumping shrimp”, tiny live shrimp mixed with chopped chilies, cilantro, and other herbs. They are scooped up with the fingers and eaten live. Another taste treat that I didn’t try.