A Wet Wet Day

In KL, the last time i wen to a wet market was some years ago. Normally i would just drive to the nearest supermarket at my house and buy all the ready-made and packed raw food. If there are any skinless chicken, i would definitely take them. If there are any peeled and chopped garlics, in they go to the the cart. Everything should be the easiest and most convenient ever. Coming to think of it, i dont even cook that much in KL and yet i would go for the most convenient way even on these rare occasions! Not very good aint it?

Now what do we have in Algeria that i can go shop around here? The answer is Nothing! So the moment KC told me we are going to the largest wet market in Algiers, i was so psyched and i made sure that i brought along my camera when i go. It was like the only opportunity i have to actually dressed nicely other than t-shirt and shorts and get the chance to wear the shoes i brought from KL and actually step out of the house in them! Whao!

Now the market is quite a distance away from our house. We met up with a local colleague, Nadin, who was previously a tour guide before he joined ALJ at the office. From the office, it took a car ride of about 30 minutes before we finally got there. According to Nadin, this market is so huge and there are so many varieties that we can basically get anything we want from here. You name it, they got it. So i was rather excited but actually i have nothing in particular to buy. I was just being nosey!

We started off from the clothing and shoes section and walked our way to the spices section. All the time when we were walking we heard people shouting "Ni Hao" at the background. Well i guess it's the same in Algiers too. Only that people in Algiers are less friendly and they do not see us Chinese as though we were from another planet. That's a relief to some extend. Finally we are normal!

Some of the local shoes designs. Looking rather comfortable because they are made of leather.

Just look at the amount of spices they have.

Olives! All kind of olives! Well too bad we dont fancy olives.

Ginger! Imported all the way from China! We have been looking for it so long finally! But it's costly though. A piece is about Rm12.

And then we came to the vegetable section. I love the colors here. Colorful and vibrant and the vegetables are so fresh that they are shinning! No joking! When we passed by a stall that sold eggs, the Algerian kid called me and gestured me to take pictures of his eggs. So i did. Then he pointed to the eggs and said proudly "Ji Dan". I laughed and nodded and echoed him. Along the way, we even encountered stall owners trying to tell us the prices in Mandarin. It was difficult to figure out initially but we did. I am surprise that they knew quite a lot of Mandarin. I guess the Chinese have made their marks here.

Look how pretty the veges are! And they are all pesticide free at a low price, unlike in KL.

Well the owner insisted that we take a photo here. So we did.

At this stall, the owner told us the price by saying "Yi Bai Wu". It took me a while to figure out what he was saying. It meant 105 in mandarin. 

And finally we went to the meat section before we head back and all the time we only conquered a small part of the market. And here i saw some really huge fishes and rabbit meats too! Well the sight of the dead rabbits with head still intact but skinless was not pretty and i did not take any pictures. But here we saw a Korean family buying some meat and when i blurted out "Ang-ni-ya-sai-yo" they looked at me. So its confirmed. I tried to secretly take picture of the young kid but he saw me! And the cute boy posted for me even. Awe...

I swear we can have fish for a week if we buy any one of these. They are huge!

Ahh...coffee beans... too bad i do not have a grinding machine in my house.

This is the "paparazzi" photo i took.

He realized and then he decided to pose for me. So cute!

Well i was thinking, maybe a wet market is a wet market in any other parts of the world. They are indeed the same and nothing much different. The only reason i acted like i have never seen them before is because i didnt visit wet market that often and i was just being ridiculously silly!