While living in Malaysia, I became very familiar with the term, wet market. A wet market, for those of you who aren’t familiar, is a fresh food market usually outdoors found primarily in Asian countries. The name “wet market” comes from the large amount of water used in these markets…whether to keep the fruits and vegetables fresh, keep the fresh fish alive or to wash the floors and buckets within the market. While living in KL, I didn’t venture to many of the wet markets. Quite honestly, I steered clear from them, and headed to our local grocery store for my weekly grocery needs. While the wet markets were popular in Malaysia, they seem to be even more popular here in Hong Kong. In fact it’s just a daily way of life!
Recently, we decided to venture into our local wet market here in Wan Chai and I quickly found myself covering my mouth and cringing a bit at the sights in front of me. All the while I watched as helpers shopped for their employer’s dinner, parents called out prices to the vendors and children ran up and down the aisles laughing with one another, just as if it was a normal day at your neighborhood Harris Teeter. It was a bit strange to me, but then again, this is just daily life here in Hong Kong.
Yummy…eels!
And what about a boxed turtle or a frog for dinner? Can you see them in the cages next to the pile of fish guts?! Poor turtles and froggies…I really wanted to free them.
And the cycle starts again…cleaning the buckets and getting ready for the next day in the wet market.
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