Nowadays, inflation is very high, and travel must be budget-conscious without compromising the experience. The local cheap and good-quality markets have naturally become a life-saving straw for travelers.
Walking around the market, looking at the colorful harvests, you will suddenly feel that life is rich and beautiful. There are countless feasts in the world that you have never tasted. How can you be willing to pass by in a hurry and turn a blind eye? I’m not good at cooking and rarely buy groceries, but I like visiting markets.
Whenever you travel to a city, you must ask the locals where the busiest markets are. They genuinely feed the urban populationthe, usually with simple expressions, sometimes looking messy. That is the truth and real experience that travelers want to find. There are so many things that market can teach you. There are so many ingredients that you have never seen before, and you don’t know their names and how to eat them. When I was traveling in Hoi An, Vietnam a few months ago, I saw an extremely weird fruit being sold in the market. The local people call it Gac Fruit, which can be used to make glutinous rice, stews, soups, desserts, and refreshing drinks. The pulp contains more carotene than carrots, so it is now considered a superfood.
Kava tastes like root water
The wood turtle fruit looks bright and attractive, but in fact, the fruit has no taste. The experience of tasting the wood turtle fruit reminds you that you must not be deceived by its appearance. I am ugly but I am gentle and healing.
I recently went to Fiji. In the market, in addition to buying a variety of bananas, Hawaiian papayas, red durians, etc. that are not very good-looking but very delicious, I can also feel a lot of unique local features. living habit. There are many stalls in the market specializing in Kava root, a shrub that grows in South Pacific island countries. Locals drink large amounts of kava when welcoming guests from out of town or during important festivals.
Forgive me for describing the process of making kava as being like scrubbing a dirty sock.
The boss worked hard to rub kava for me and filled a bowl with a drink that looked like muddy water in a coconut shell. I hesitated for a few seconds. Looking at the boss’s sincere expression, I couldn’t bear to be a rude guest. Kava tastes like drinking tree root water, with a bit of spiciness. After drinking it in one sip, the tip of your tongue will feel a little numb. Our fear of strange things is just the fear of the unknown. It is not as scary as imagined.
Lau Pa Sat houses a cinema
Usually the bigger the city, the more interesting markets there are. Not to mention the distant markets, the market in Bangkok is very exciting. A local friend recommended me to go to Nang Leong market. It is not bright inside. Time is frozen into the past feelings of the 1970s and 1980s. Nang Loeng may not be popular with ordinary tourists. I’m not very discerning, but I think it’s quite fun and delicious. There is a restaurant here that sells Rung Rueang (Thai pork noodles, similar to Singaporean pork noodles) that is particularly famous. The noodles are also handmade in-house, and there is also Khaw Kriab Pak Mor (similar to rice rolls) that is steamed and sold now, all of which are family-sized. The work, the ancient flavor passed down from generation. Pasar Lane also hides a cinema built in 1918. This is the oldest wooden structure cinema in Thailand. It has been restored and is still vacant. Its existence undoubtedly reveals the glorious past of this market and the area.
Nowadays, inflation is very high, and travel must be budget-conscious without compromising the experience. The local cheap and good-quality markets have naturally become a life-saving straw for travelers. I recently traveled to Australia in a self-driving campervan, and usually had dinner at the campground. So we always visited the local fish market to buy fresh catches, such as oysters, scallops, and even lobsters. It was several times cheaper than eating in a restaurant and very convenient. Fresh, under the stars of the Southern Hemisphere, I ate all the wonderful memories of Australia in my stomach.
