Foto Friday # 99

Fried fish for sale at the local market in Saquisili in Ecuador. Normally served with rice and/or greasy fried potato's and a simple salad. A very cheap but filling lunch.

Foto Friday # 87

Spices for sale at a market stall in San Cristobal de las Casas in Chiapas, Mexico.

Foto Friday # 86

A lady selling salads and herbs on the street in Chefchaouen in northern Morocco.

Hunan Province – Part One - Fenghuang

Hunan Province is famed for many things, but the most famous is being the birthplace of Mao Zedong. I did think about writing something about him, but decided against it, as the subject is just too complicated with too many people knowing a hell of a lot more about him and the history around him than me, So I decided no.

But whatever you think about the man and what history says about him. He has one major claim to fame. His favourite dish of Red Cooked Pork has been renamed in his honour. Mao Shi Hong Shao Rou. 毛氏红烧肉 ….

How cool is that not only to have a dish named after you, but it’s also a bloody good plate of food at that.

Sadly we never had time to visit his hometown of Shaoshan. Which is a shame, because not only could we have visited the house he once lived in, wow, thankfully now preserved as a museum, but we also missed eating at Mao’s Family Restaurant. A small chain selling all of Mao’s favourite dishes, including smoked fish with dried red chilli (ban hou bei yu). But sadly it wasn’t meant to be, as we were in Changsa for only 1 night and itching to start heading west.

I’m pretty sure Changsa doesn’t get that many foreign tourists as we were looked upon with friendly curiosity, especially down some of the back alleys, where old ladies sitting outside gossiping looked at us with surprise, before their faces broke out in large warm smiles.

I didn’t know anything about the food of Hunan, except it was supposed to be hot. Excellent. Hunan and Sichuan foods are compared with each other, but where as Sichuan uses those ohh so lovely palette numbing peppercorns, in Hunan it is just straightforward chilli they use and they use it so well.

One of the major sights of Hunan Province is Fenghuang (Phoenix). A beautiful well preserved ancient town with a history dating back over a thousand years.

The ancient part of the town adjacent to the river that splits the town in two has been spruced up and a lot of the stilted houses have also been renovated.

Domestic tourism in China has exploded since we were last on the mainland 7 years ago, and these old towns that gives a glimpse into China’s wealthy history are inundated with eager tourists wanting to learn more about their history first hand.

Fenghuang is definitely a place for this. It really has everything. Lot’s of history, minority groups, ancient buildings, a lovely river to take boat rides on, and plenty of places to eat and drink.

We had no problem finding food to eat and eat well we did. A lot of it was down to potluck though with a lot of pointing at what other people were eating and what looked good coming out of the kitchen.

This way of ordering never let us down, but I know for certain we definitely missed out on a lot of food we would have wanted to eat.

But this is the problem with not be able to speak or read the language, and not finding any menus in English, and no one to hand to translate. But this is why I love travelling so much.

This is something we would love to change, but it would mean some serious studying and/or moving to China. Now that is one thing we would love to do. One day.

The eating highlight was definitely to be had at the night market. A wondrous sight just outside of the old town. Row upon row of stalls selling everything known to man that can be cooked on an open grill.

The sounds and those smells were a sight to behold. Thankfully in my old age, dementia has not set in just yet and I can still picture the scene, smell the food being cooked, the sounds of those musicians coming around and playing your favourite Chinese tunes for 10 Yuan a pop. I want to go back.

I have a way of choosing where to eat when it comes to street food. Generally its best to choose a stall that is jammed pack with a steady stream of customers, as it means the food is freshly cooked and turned over pretty fast. So nothing hanging around for a long time going off.

Here, every stall was packed. A really good sign. We were waiting for a while for a couple of seats to come free. Thankfully the seats were at the stall of the best grill master at the night market.

We could have stayed there all night choosing a few of these, some of that, a couple of skewers of those, oh definitely gotta have some of them. 3 of the pork skewers. A whole fish, some veggies as well. Choosing was mad.

There was a wide range of food on offer at the night market from fish to vegetables, meat and even pig’s head. We were really tempted to see how they were going to serve it, but we never saw anyone having it. Shame.

Over the 3 nights there we ate at quite a few different stalls, but the best dish we had was a whole aubergine cooked on the hot plate. The Grill Master rubbed it all over in oil, and then ever so gently made little cuts to open it out as it softened and cooked.

After several minutes of this, it was opened up as flat as a fish, and with some chilli oil and chilli powder liberally sprinkled on top, it actually ended up coming to our table looking like a nice fish. It was amazing.

Our other favourite place to eat was a small hole in the wall away from the tourist hordes. For breakfast everyday this lovely lady made us feel so welcome and had a large smile as she cooked our simple rice noodle stir fries. Simple food but cooked ohh so well.

This side of the Fenghuang we were mini stars, with all the locals who were dropping their kids or grandchildren off at the adjacent school, would all said hello to us with their big toothless grins.

We did try and speak to all and sundry, even if it was just a few words and badly pronounced, but people seemed to be patient with us and were pleased that we were making an effort.

The problem was when people tried to speak to us. Those blank looks in our faces must have been a sight to behold.

One thing I regret was not persuading the wife to dress up in traditional minority costume and have her photo taken like everyone else was.

It would have given us memories for a lifetime, even though Fenghuang has given us that already. 

Foto Friday # 64

Spice towers for sale at a market stall in Marrakech, Morocco. 

Foto Friday # 63

The breakfast of champions at a market stall in Ingapirca in Ecuador.

Foto Friday # 62

4 happy diners eating some lunch at a stall in Pujili market in Ecuador, high in the andes.

Foto Friday # 51

An open air butchers in the small pueblito of Giradota in Colombia.

Foto Friday # 26

Some beautiful fish for sale in the market in Tahiti. It was kinda sad, as we had been diving with them only the day before.

A Day South of the River

We’d had quite a busy day, especially with Lina venturing into a street photographic project with the Photography Gallery. Each week for a year there is a new instruction posted on the web. You then go and see what you can come up with based on that instruction. She is being pretty open minded about the instructions, and churning out some good fotos. 

This weeks one was “Take a Bus. Do weekly shopping. Pop into a public loo” Normally they are quite normal. But this actually fits in well with us re-discovering London, as we now get to go all other on this mad photo journey. So Saturday morning we found ourselves in Brixton market to take a few snaps and more importantly to see where we could lunch.

I was keen on having a pizza at Franco Manca, and the queue when we arrived before noon was ok. So we wandered around for a bit, snapping and the like.
Brixton market has everything that you could want in a street market. Good veggie stalls, a tonne of meat shops selling every cut under the sun. But it's the quantity of fishmongers that is amazing. All the fish looks so good, and at very good prices also. Damn we really have to move. I wish there were more places like this all over London, especially on this scale. Damn those supermarkets.

After a while snapping all and sundry we stopped off for a coffee at Rosie’s, a place I had bizarrely read about whilst we were in Colombia.

Rosie’s has that feel of a floppy old English teashop, with loving cakes in the window and loads of delish produce to buy on the shelves.

We sat outside watching the world go by as you do, or as I do. The coffee was served in 1950’s teacups, ahhhh just like out of Enid Blyton. I also fuelled my addiction and had one of their sausage rolls. Pastry was really nice and flaky, terribly greasy though, and even had some cartilage inside the meat as well. But apart from that it was ok. I wish we had eaten brunch here, but I was thinking pizza.

Wandering around some more I was again in need of a coffee. I have forgone coffee at work this past month to drink green tea, and I am feeling all the better for it. But when I start drinking coffee I need more.

So I stumbled upon Federation Coffee. A great little place serving good coffee in Brixton Village Market. You can tell these guys love their job. The barista made my flat white with care and attention. A rare thing these days. T’was a damn good flat white as well. I wish this place was closer to my home. Maybe I should move. Now that is an idea.

We were tempted by a few places in there to eat. Especially as we’ve discovered it is a little Colombia inside. We counted at least three Colombian eateries. All serving the food I lived on for 8 months. It’s not been long enough yet, although I was tempted to have some Ajiaco. That great potato, corn and chicken soup. Hmmmmm.

By the time we made it back to Franco Manca there were at least 50 people in the queue. Now really is the pizza that good or is it just to see and be seen. I can name many a place like that. So we wandered off. I will try the one in Chiswick and see how good they really are. Although atmosphere plays a big part in restaurants, and Chiswick will be more un-atmospheric than in Brixton. That I can say for sure. I cannot imagine those yummy mummies from Chiswick queuing for more than 5 minutes for anything. I have found that to be a Chiswick thing. They do not queue.

No idea what happened next but we found ourselves in the Railway Tavern in Clapham. I think walking and talking we lost sight of where we were or where to go.

I have been to the Tavern before but just for drinks. There was a reason for that.

They have a good selection of beers. Draught and bottled. But what can I say about the food at the Railway Tavern, apart from it wasn’t very good. I was feeling a bit under the weather at the time. This is my excuse. Maybe it was a punishment for not queuing at Franco Manca, or maybe I have lost my Karma for a bit.

Lina opted for a fish pie, and I and the burger with added cheese and bacon. Well, the fish pie had boiled potato’s (with skins on) mixed in below the slightly burnt crust. More padding, less fish. It actually wasn’t bad. Had a nice flavour but really it was underwhelming. But we were in a pub.

My burger was pretty poor to say the least. The only redeeming feature was that the bun had been toasted. The meat was over cooked and burnt around the edges. The bacon had shrivelled so much I only found it and the cheese with the last bite. The chips were ok though. Nice and crispy on the outside and floury on the inside.

But as I said the pub has some nice beers on offer and for a place just to drink it is pretty good. Just don’t eat there.

Foto Friday # 5

This stall at the Market near the Bastille sold a fantastic array of spices from all over the world. How I wished we had lived in Paris for even a short while. It would have been a great experience.

The Only Place To Buy Your Fruit 'n' Veg

I have been shopping in two places wince we arrived. The open market on Graham Street, is by far the most popular one I goto. I just enjoy the hustle n bustle of the place. The fish stalls where the fish is still alive when you buy it. The sellers take about 3 or 4 cuts to kill the fish and gut it. Then they descale it for you all within 10 se4conds. Incredible to see.

The fresh meat sellers, whose stalls look anything less that hygienic, with the meat hanging up on hooks in the humidity, but so far we have not had any bad effects from buying from these guys.

The fruit & vegetable stalls, all selling bundles of the freshest looking fruit n veg I have ever seen.

The other market, which is actually closer to home, is the Sheung Wan Covered market. A 3 storey building, which sells meat, cooked and uncooked, fresh fish, fruit, veggies and some dry goods, with a stall that sells some fantastic fresh egg noodles. This place is a bit cheaper than the one above, but then again it’s all about location, location, location here in Hong Kong. The top floor is the cooked food centre. We haven’t eaten there yet. Well we can only eat at so many places. Hahahahaha.

There are plenty of supermarkets here in Hong Kong, which we have been into to buy the store cupboard necessities like soy sauce, rice wine vinegar etc etc. There are some foreign or ex-pat orientated supermarkets, which really stock everything you would find back home. But am not tempted to make tacos just yet. They are also considerably more expensive than shopping at the local markets, and with prices of food on the increase the gap is widening.

We went the other day to Bowington Road Market. Another fantastic market, if we were staying closer then I would be here everyday. It’s similar to the one in Central but more spacious and a lot cheaper. Shame its in Wan Chai.

Every Sunday at the Star Ferry Pier in Central there is an Organic Farmers Market. The produce is grown in the New Territories. All the produce looks fantastic and fresh. They sell a lot of different varieties of salads that I have not seen before. They do not provide bags for you, they advise you to bring your own, but they will wrap your veg in a leaf for you, so you can carry it away. Excellent idea.