The other day we went out in search of decorated cows for Eid, but instead wandered into an awesome market place. At first we were surrounded by fruit and vegetable vendors (and I bought about 12 feet of sugar cane), but the streets grew more and more narrow. As the streets narrowed we were suddenly treated to the pungent odor of dried fish. Ahead of us the stalls all changed from fruits (and flies) to dried fish (and flies). We met intersection after intersection as the small winding lanes came together around us and stalls of dried fish sprawled out in every direction. The vendors were friendly and excited that we had somehow found our way into their section of the market. We continued on and were delighted to suddenly smell, behind the dried fish, the smell of Christmas- cinnamon, cloves, ginger, cardamom... we turned left and the path narrowed to a one man walk way framed on each side by spice vendors. The smell was overpowering and wonderful- chili, turmeric, onion powder, coriander powder, fenugreek, cumin, cumin powder, black pepper, cardamom, cinnamon sticks, cinnamon powder, cloves... it was wonderful. We trudged on, treating our noses to the smells from around us, but soon found that we were in a fresh fish market. Stall after stall sold the same types of fresh fish on ice. Only after a few minutes did we realize that the buckets full of fish actually had live fish in them. Sometimes the fish were barely in an inch of water. I wonder if this has to do with halal food, since fish that die in water are not halal.
As we passed by one such stand of fresh and live fish, the vendor motioned us over, and tried to hand Sarah a fish. This is what happened:
1 comment:
Haha Sarah's face (right after the fish jumps out of her hand) cracks me up every time.
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