Category Archives: Produce

Local Market in Jogja

While shopping arcades/malls will draw the life out of me, local markets give the opposite effect. In a larger picture, Southeast Asian local markets look and feel the same though it’s just a generality. There are detailed contrasts between regions from the atmosphere, to the quantity of certain ingredients also the variety, the tools, the merchants and patrons, the layout, the arrangement, and even the ornamentation.

I went to this food market in Yogyakarta near Prawirotaman street and took joy (as usual) in my stroll within.
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Floor level seating is the norm.
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I’ve noticed that there’s no market type of shouting, a contrast to the palengkera manner of calling out to shoppers (in a good way) in the Philippines where that kind of market chaos (one that I love) is eternally present. These merchants were relatively quiet in Jogja.
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See the mangoes in that handsome timbangan (weighing scale). Also chilies, petai and sprouts in those flat round baskets.
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The chicken lady of the market and her timbangan. I like this photo.
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Spice pack of galangal, bay leaves and lemongrass. So unlike in the Philippines where one can see Knorr Cubes and Magic Sarap junk in the palengke.
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Those are palm sugar inside the clear plastic bags.
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The Indonesian cook who was with me the second time I went here says these are macadamia nuts commonly used in Indonesian cooking (but I think she meant candlenuts).
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Benguet Coffee

One of the stalls selling coffee beans or ground coffee in Baguio public market.
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Heavy duty grinder (that reminds me of a fire hydrant) if you want freshly ground coffee by the kilo.
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Kadios Season

You know you’re an Ilonggo if you eat this bean.

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Removing kadios beans from its pod

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Ready to measure a glass of it worth Php25

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Filling the glass

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Pay for 2 glassful of kadios then go home and cook KBL

Roadside Bananas

I like stalls that sell fruits/vegetables from vendors’ own plots. It is the same banana so I buy from them whenever I have the chance helping them also to be sustainable. Truly it is more interesting to buy from these roadside stalls and directly from these small time sellers than in airconditioned supermarkets.

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Tree-ripened bananas taste better

Vegetable Vendor

Tangkong

Tangkong is the Visayan term (Ilonggo or Cebuano) for water spinach and known as kangkong countrywide.

Here’s a stanza from the Provincial Jail song (radio drama song) that I hear all the time in Bacolod in the past that the lyrics still in my head.

Ang amon na utan ginulot na langka, tinuktok nga tangkong bisan asin wala
Samtang naga kaon ga tulo ang luha, daw ano kasubo kung imo makita

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Lanzones Season

Guso

There are a number of vinegar based salad variations all over the country and guso is one of the main ingredients of this type of salad.

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I prefer the crunchiness of this sea vegetable over lettuce

Alugbati

Alugbati is a wonderful green leafy vegetable that tastes good and very easy to grow.

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Growing alugbati in a micro garden

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Alugbati soup with fresh shrimps, eggplant, string beans and squash

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Alugbati salad with dried dilis, tomatoes and onions

Rambutan Colors

Batwan

This fruit from a tree is used as souring ingredient by crushing it like how you crush a garlic then add it in fish paksiw, tinolang isda, kansi etc
Batwan is common in Panay and Negros and I recently found out that this is also common in Masbate.

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Masbate City Market

This market is busier in the afternoon than in the morning. 

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Green stemmed alugbati

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May puso ang saging (banana heart)

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Coconuts to grate to extract the milk

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Tanglad (lemon grass)

Watercress in Cordillera

Watercress

Watercress can be sautéed, or added in soups, or eaten as salad

Watercress is very abundant in Cordillera and therefore a household or restaurant staple in that region.

Tuaran’s Tamu

A tamu is a gathering of sorts of  local sellers on a designated day . Sunday is the day for Tuaran’s tamu in Sabah.

traditional medicines

traditional medicines

king of the wood used for snake bites and stomach ache

king of the wood used for snake bites and stomach ache

petai (stink beans)

petai (stink beans)

fresh fish

fresh fish

dried fish with chili oil

dried fish with chili oil

nasi lemak

nasi lemak

rice cakes

rice cakes

cooking local hotcakes

cooking hotcakes

hotcakes

hotcakes

gado-gado

gado-gado

cendol

cendol

Fresh Food

Fresh seafood stall in Sheung Wan, Hong Kong Island side

Fresh seafood stall in Sheung Wan, Hong Kong Island side

Wholesale vegetable market in Cheung Sha Wan, Kowloon side

Wholesale vegetable market in Cheung Sha Wan, Kowloon side

Bicolano Ingredients

Fish Transport