Quite an eye-opener… scaling live fish… beheading frogs (that are tied together at the legs in groups of 6) …Hanging pig heads, hearts and other organs in front of the butcher block. Oh and ever see the chicken-feather-removing machine? They slit the throat of a live chicken…throw it in a bucket for a couple minutes to let it bleed to death…then into the machine it goes to “steam” off the feathers…
Sounds yummy. Sorry, gotta go to the toilet and puke …
And then…?
I love the smell of a good chicken massacre in the morning. So sad in Western countries you don’t get to watch either.
I did wonder about buying a live one and whacking it when I was ready to eat it. It is not that stupid - live chickens don’t need expensive refrigeration, and if you don’t fancy chicken tonight it will still be fresh later in the week. On the mainland it is common practice to buy chicken this way.
Must admit I was in the (very fine) Keelung fish market. A laoban was trying to dispatch a large fish, but seemed to have mislaid the cleaver (the normal approach is to hit the fish on the head with the flat side of the cleaver). She was using a chunk of wood but could not get a clean shot. Definate signs of blunt trauma to the fish. This place also seems to go in for live gutting of smaller fish, presumably it is not worth the trouble to kill them first, and they die after you gut. Anyway, fish never seem to complain.
when i lived in wanhua we had to walk by the big poultry market to get the 38 bus–a smell this city boy will never forget
Just another day on the farm…(minus the frogs, but Grandpa caught a snapping turtle once–Yum!)
Hey Geng,
Which morning market did you go to? I have yet to get up early enough to see these places. I want to check it out, sounds cool!
The ones in China are really dirty, especially in Guangdong province. Those mainlanders are really dirty and in Guangdong they really do eat everything. It was like a zoo.
Anyway, I am sure the Taiwanese one will be pretty cool, but not so much of a zoo like the one in Guangdong.
OK, what is the location of the one you went to? I always liked my food fresh and it would be a good place to take some pictures. My friends back home don’t want to see pictures of Costco!
Hobart,
The best market (I reckon) is the open air one on Min Zu Road (parallel to MinQuen E Road) and just opposite that little alley that ones down the back of the domestic airport.
They have seafood, meats, veges etc. Plus it is right near the brand spankin new Taipei Fish Market - where they will cook your selection on the spot. Very nice. Perfect rangefinder spot.
3Q 3Q,
I will check it out as well as the Taipei fish market. I have only been to the fish market out past Keelung on the coast on the way to Fu Long. I like that one a lot. It is a sort of edible aqaurian. Lots of colorful crabs and cuttlefish to shoot.
3Q.
Hobart