Did I really never blog about our trip to the fish market and meat market a few weeks ago? It must have been because I was too tired after leaving the house at the crack of dawn (7:30am) to beat the worst of the heat. I’ve never gone before because 1. I don’t do things that require getting up early, 2. I don’t go to new places by myself if I don’t have to, 3. It’s way easier to walk into a regular grocery store and get the same thing for almost the same price. But since several friends were going and one person was going to show us the ropes, it was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.
Carter came with me and had two requests: shrimp and crab.
I should have taken a photo inside the fish market, but it was this huge warehouse full of platters of fish, shrimp, crab, shark and any other sea creatures you could think of — narrow walkways, wet floors and the smell of salt and fish on everything. I was so busy taking it all in that I forgot to pull out my camera until we got to my friend’s shrimp guy. She’s been shopping at the fish market almost every week for about a year and has her favorite suppliers for particular things. She said this guy has very fresh shrimp and sells her the largest size for the best price. We were able to get these huge shrimp for about $7.50 for 2.2lbs. And then they cleaned them for another $1.25. (I actually bought about 10lbs and then froze the extras).
Then it was crab time. We got 11 of these beauties for about $4. They don’t sell them alive, which according to the internet is a huge no-no (in America at least), but they were all fresh caught so I took my chances.
Then we went over to the meat market. There are obviously a lot less “rustic” places to buy meat on the island, but I guess the freshest and cheapest is sold here. New Zealand lamb and Pakistani beef. A friend of mine buys leg of lamb for about $1.25/lb. I guess that’s a good price. I don’t buy lamb because I think it tastes like a farm smells. I will concede that I have had really good lamb over here, but since good lamb tastes like beef, I just buy beef instead.
Inside the meat market — stall after stall, all selling beef and lamb.
Carter was not impressed with the smell and swore he wouldn’t eat anything that I bought here. The building was warm and smelled of blood and flesh. I wasn’t sure I would want to eat anything from there either, so we just watched as my friends purchased legs of lamb.
The guy is chopping the lamb leg into pieces so it fits in my friend’s crockpot. He holds the cleaver in the air and then WHACK! WHACK! splits it into pieces. I’m pretty sure his cutting board is part of a tree stump. I wonder how and how often they clean them?
Animal carcases everywhere
That thing that looks like a lizard is a beef/cow tail.
Not really in the mood for eating meat today . . .
But we did come home and enjoy steamed crab!
