Z is for Zhongshan

For the last letter of Round 9 at ABC Wednesday I'm bringing you to a favorite market of mine, the Zhongshan Antique Furniture Market.

When I first visited this market many years ago, there was no fancy gate like this to greet us and no real buildings, just a small loose group of vendors in makeshift structures selling antiques collected in villages near and far. (It's a pity I did not carry a camera in those early days!)

The market has expanded significantly over the decades and today it is an enormous formal complex of vendors selling antiques real and reproduced. Not only furniture, but you can find garden decor, home decoratives and knickknacks here... in stone, metal, wood and ceramic.

I am going to let my photos tell you the rest of the story.

 

Zhongshan, Guangdong, 2009

The red bubble between the City of Zhongzhan and Macau marks the spot where this market is.

[Our World] Good Catch in the Fish Market

For Our World Tuesday I like to show you a little slice of life in my corner of the world, wherever I happen to be. I am at home in Manila these days and I recently accompanied my honey to the market again... and, as usual, while he picks, I click. The stall owners recognize me by now and humor me.

Today I focus on the seafood area.

Manila, 2011

This magnificent lapu-lapu fish (grouper) not only looked fresh, when steamed by my honey, it tasted like a piece of heaven!

It's my favorite fish. What's yours?

How Much for This Trinket?

My honey and I have spent the better part of the last few weeks packing and moving house. And while neither of us are much into shopping, it shocks me how many knickknacks and doodads we've still managed to accumulate over the years. We could set up our own flea market, I kid you not.

This is a photo of a woman in a mirror I took a few months ago at a flea market in Bucharest. For Weekend Reflections and Weekend in Black and White.

Bucharest, 2011

Tonight will be our first sleep in our new home.

Sticky Stuff

Suman is a Filipino delicacy served over the Christmas holidays, which in the Philippines, it is jokingly said, goes from early September to end January. Traditionally suman is served as dessert at the Noche Buena meal (Christmas Eve after late night mass).

This delicious dish is made of sticky rice cooked with coconut milk and steamed in banana leaves. The rice mixture is then skillfully wrapped in buri leaves. There are regional variations in the recipe, and these days we can buy them flavored, including chocolate suman!

I found these being sold in front of the Quiapo Church in Manila just a few weeks ago.

Manila, 2011

Suman is typically served with sugar and grated coconut, or with a coconut based sauce, or with ripe yellow mango.

This is my offering for Mellow Yellow Monday.

E is for Eggs

Manila, 2011

Today my photo story is about egg delivery to the market. The eggs are brought in from the countryside in a jeepney (a vehicle that will get its own story one day)... I am astonished that the eggs survive the trip! They are hauled by humans into the marketplace from where they are distributed to the many private retail kiosks.

As always, all images can be enlarged with a click of the mouse.

And this is my post for ABC Wednesday and also for Signs, Signs. 

A little late note added for sign enthusiasts: It is typical for private trucks and carriers of all sizes to have a sign "not for hire"... and that is done to discourage drivers from using the vehicle to moonlight.

D is for Drum

These are exquisite reproductions of the Maranao temple drums that in the past the sultan would use to call his people to town meetings.

 

Manila, 2009

I found them at a native craft market called Tiendesitas, but they were likely made by traditional woodcarvers in Lanao del Sur on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao. The Maranao tribe, largest of the indigenous Muslim Moro ethnic group, is well-known and admired for their beautiful arts and crafts - weaving, wood and metal craft - as well as their epic literature.

The one question I had that I could not find an answer to is why they are called temple drums when followers of Islam worship in a mosque.

Today I am joining Jenny's Alphabe-Thursday where the letter of the day is D. You'll be surprised how many creative posts "D" can make.

[MyWorld] Don't Pick Me!

For Cantonese the only seafood worth eating is fresh... very fresh.

In Hong Kong, people have a hefty appetite for seafood - consuming an average of nearly 50 kg (110 lbs) a year - and are willing to pay a premium for it. Thousands of tons of live seafood, most of it caught in the wild, are flown in from around the world. It's a half-billion dollar a year trade... for this one city.

The crabs, lobster, clams, scallops, oysters and other seafood is distributed to countless tanks in wet markets and restaurants throughout the Special Administrative Region. These are snapshots of a wet market I recently visited where customers choose their own live dinner for a nearby restaurant to cook and serve.

 Hong Kong, 2010

I "caught" these red fish in a tank. The perfectly prepared meal we had was to die for. But don't tell these fish that!

This is for Klaus and team's My World Tuesday - you'll find plenty of scenes from around the globe there! And there are more great takes on the theme RED at Mary's Ruby Tuesday.

Red Bananas

While staying in the charming bed and breakfast in Puerto Princesa a couple of months ago I mentioned in an earlier post, I noticed a fruit basket on the table containing something I had never seen before: red bananas! Twenty years in the Philippines and this was truly the first time I laid my eyes on red bananas. I really shrieked with delight.

The genial B&B hostess made it her personal mission to get me to the market to photograph this fruit before leaving the island. 

Palawan, 2010

I have since then learned that these are locally called Morado bananas, from the Spanish "purple" and they are a distinctly different variety from other yellow and green bananas. What you see here are Morado chico (small size). I had the good fortune last week of seeing a Morado grande (the largest banana ever!), but the bad fortune of not having my camera on me.

The small red banana is shorter, plumper, creamier and sweeter than the usual Cavendish banana most people are familiar with. Here is the fruit basket I first saw the red bananas in. Do you know these other tropical fruits in this basket?

Today's post plays along with Ruby Tuesday, hosted by Mary. As usual, the link takes you to links of other people playing with RED today.

Dressing Up

Every year in July the good people of Mongolia enjoy their biggest national event, the Naadam Festival of Manly Sports: wrestling, horse racing and archery. Whether they come to compete or to cheer, most come decked out in their traditional attire. I captured this woman checking herself out in a possible new jacket in the main market of Ulaanbaatar where days before the event the crowds in the clothing section were elbow-to-elbow.

Mongolia, 2007

This is posted for Weekend Reflections hosted by James where you can find links to many more takes on this fun theme. 

PS. I'll be posting more about this most wonderful festival in the months to come. Should you be curious, be sure to come back.  
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Reflections in an Antique Market

It wasn't so great to explore an open air antique market in the rain, but it soon stopped, and when it did, I found reflections in the puddles and containers.  

This is one of several grand gates to the market:

Zhongshan, Guangdong, 2009

The Huacai Antique Market near Zhongshan is one I've visited several times over this past decade and it has, like most everything else in China, gotten both bigger and less authentic. Nonetheless, like any good flea market, there are delightful treasures of all sizes and at all prices to be found here, real and reproduced.

I like to rummage around places no one else goes. This is one of the many back alleys of this huge compound. I wish I could think of something to do with one of these old doors:

These stone pots would look fabulous in any garden.

 

Posted for Weekend Reflections. The link takes you to many other interesting reflections. You'll see a larger image if you click on the photo.

Mellow Yellow Market

Split, Croatia, 2009

Yellow bags, yellow tags, all so mellow at the market. 

Posted for Mellow Yellow Monday meme. Click on the link for more links to yellow.