A day at the market

My brother-in-law and his wife are visiting after so many years in Canada and they missed a lot of the food they ate as they grew up here. Among the things we made sure of is to have healthy options for our meals so our refrigerator and pantry is stocked with fruits, vegetables, sea food, poultry and meat that will allow us to cook up good food for the balikbayans.

We decided to go to the market last Saturday with my bayaw for us to get food for our Easter Sunday lunch. The new Antipolo Public Market is a good place to get fresh food and we already have our suki for various stuff we get at the market. There's ample parking (basement and covered from the harsh summer sun) and the market is as clean as it can get given the "wet" nature of the market.

The Clairvoyant selecting lettuce and other greens for our salad - we also get our asparagus, broccoli, cauliflower and other vegetables from our suki at the market.

Bounty of the land -fresh vegetables, fruits and root crops.

You can't really get thirsty at the market and the coconut stands serve up coconut water (buko juice) straight from the shell. They are also fair as they will open another coconut if there is not enough water inside.

The water is transferred to a plastic bag and then the white meat of the coconut is "shaved" and mixed into the water. So in addition to the water, you get to eat the soft or sometime crunchy (if its already niyog and no longer buko) meat.

It was Black Saturday but the market was already full of people and vendors of meat products were happy that people were again buying beef and pork. People tend to reduce meat consumption in favor of seafood and poultry for their viands during Lent. I wanted to get a photo of our sukis' stands from where we get our tuna, tanguige, prawns and shrimps (suaje) but my fish monger wasn't there and our prawn/shrimp suki was already out of prawns and shrimps! But there will be a next time so the photos can wait.

I forgot to take a photo of our suki for dried fish. We now have a good source for our danggit, dulong, squid, daing and other dried seafood that we usually enjoy for breakfasts. Our dried fish are not at all salty so they are enjoyable to eat (of course in moderation!).

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