Boy am I conspicuous. Even without a mini camcorder I stick out like a sore thumb in Lima. Fortunately I’ve been here before and generally know where I’m going and what not to do (carry a purse or shoulder bag, talk loudly and arrogantly in English, walk places alone at night, take a million photos), but the last one is tricky because that’s what I do – take photos and videos. And carrying those machines around requires some kind of bag, or very large pockets. And my pockets are not that big, literally or metaphorically.
Today I went back to the surquillo market, the large wholesale market in my area. There, restaurants buy their produce, spices, powdered chicken and meat stocks, and condiments. They can even buy pre-chopped vegetables for soup in little plastic bags. The Chifas (Chinese restaurants) have a steady supply of black bean and soya sauces, and everyone loves their MSG. Hygeine is alright, but I would definitely cook that beef good and long. Fish is still very expensive, with a kilo of the prized ceviche fish, corvhina, going for about $10 CAD. To put it in perspective, tilapia costs about $1/kg.
What you’ll see in the video:
1. A shot of the market from the Ovalo at Paseo de la Republica just north of Jose Pardo, which I believe may have morphed into Ricardo Palma by then.
2. Walking through a side entrance near lots of pre-blended cilantro and hot pepper (aji) salsas, with a woman pouring an aji amarillo paste from a bag into a bowl for scooping.
3. Chicken. They sell them with the feet on.
4. Figs, mangoes, apples, oranges, bananas, grapes, dried chilies hanging from ceilings, purple corn, and boxes that people use to stack their produce instead of shopping carts.
5. Giant papaya, yacon (looks like white sweet potato, but is definitely not white sweet potato), artichokes
6. Sauces
7. Aji amarillo yellow chili peppers
8. Olives, garlic, eggs.
9. Beef
10. Oysters, clams, squid, octopus, shrimp, langoustines, corvhina, sea bass, grouper or snapper, trout
11. More chicken
12. Rice paper wrappers, packaged seaweed, chili peppers
13. One giant skinned cow…
It’s straight on the counter. At first I thought it wasn’t hygeinic, but it’s actually easy to clean the counters that way. Just don’t touch the counter, and don’t hand money to the teller doing the slicing.
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