Marketplace…

*All photos in this post (except one) through the kind courtesy of Phil, my cousin’s hubby, from the UK*

When my cousin and her hubby were in town, they were staying at a hotel around a hundred metres from the Sibu Central Market so I suggested to them that they could just stroll over and walk around to look and see. Many who came did that and they were absolutely enthralled as they saw many interesting things, not (easily) found elsewhere.

They did not do that the first morning they were here probably because the hubby was still recuperating from the food poisoning he experienced before he arrived. However, they managed to do so on the second day and he shared a series of photographs on his Facebook page.

One that got me really tickled was this parade of chicken butts…

…black and white. Gee!!! I’ve been to the market so many times but I never noticed them displaying the birds in that awkwardly compromising position. LOL!!!

These, what I call newspaper chickens…

…are a star attraction and they even have them featured in the street art painting on the wall in front at the market…

*Archive photo*

They were not in luck though as they did not get to see any frogs nor sago worms but they did come across some ikan keli (catfish)…

…that we had for lunch the day before and one even managed to get away…

That happens quite often, I think, as I have seen it a couple of times and it sure is not easy trying to catch those slippery slithering eels.

They asked me what fish this was…

…and if I am not wrong, we call it the khor tua hu (belt fish) by virtue of the fact that it looks like a belt.

They also did not know what those long white cylindrical things at the far end were. Well, they’re hu phio (fish swim bladders) or fish maw, very popular in soups and believed to have some health benefits, a good source of collagen and it helps with one’s blood circulation.

I love the colours in this photograph that Phil took…

…and what??? Durians again???…

The previous season just ended and they are making their appearance again, and the same goes with the dabai (our local black olives)…

Phil, who had never had the fruit before, managed to get to try the sample and he said no, it sure did not taste anything like the olives he had eaten back home. Too bad they did not appear a week or two earlier around Chinese New Year time – those who came all the way home for the festival would have been delighted to be able to eat these seasonal fruits.

Well, the two of them sure enjoyed browsing around our market and you would too, I am sure so don’t miss this place should you ever have the chance to drop by our good ol’ little Sibu town.