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Initially I was excited; I was able to procure the authentic vegetables for my pepper pot, including calabaza, jicama, and real spinach and I got a whole bag of scotch bonnet for $1.39. The excitement quickly dissipated when I approached the seafood department. I went over to the fish counter and was greeted by a pseudo aquarium. Fish, eel, and mollusks swimming in water. I wanted trout but settled for striped bass, as it was the only wild fish available. I looked at the meat counter and was mortified; no part of the pig goes to waste, including the blood, the uteri, and the stomach - waste not want not.
At this point I was beginning to feel a bit too connected to food. The poultry section had old and young chickens and of course duck. The duck were reasonable, $2.49 per pound. It was at this moment that it was clear that I am just as disconnected from my food as the next person. I have never hunted nor gathered anything. I buy food in nice packaging, shielded from reality. Well reality is a duck in a plastic bag and when I say duck, that's exactly what I mean, beak and webbed feet included.
We made a trip down to the market and took one of my daughters in (Kat), what an experience! I have been in one other traditional market overseas, but this one was different. We walked in and all our senses were stimulated at once. My daughter walked in and said "Whoa!" My husband took her up and down the aisles. Showed her the fresh seafood in tanks; lobsters, fish, eels, squid. Then the meats, and the vegetables. She got a look at lemon grass and the many varieties of mushrooms and root veggies. Then they went back to the shops; she is very interested in Chinese and Japanese culture, there are some sweets that she sees all the time in her internet travels, Pocky I think it's called, and was in heaven, walked back to the car with her prize clutched in her little hands. The purpose of the pilgrimage was to see everything first hand and Chef Isa was on a mission for a duck. Happy to say he found one (billed and webbed of course) for the same great price. He put it in the car and back on the road to WV we went. We talked in the car about it and also figured that it was pretty close to real markets in the East considering some of the governmental regulation they probably have to put up with. Bong Vuoung is as close to the real thing as we can get.
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