Grocery shopping is interesting. The food is different, the money is different, and it's difficult to ask questions. In the supermercado, you have to face your fears right at the front door when you check your backpack at a pink window and a 12-year-old boy exchanges your bag for a faded number written on a small piece of wood. The aisles are so close together that it is not easy to pass someone, and you have to watch your step or you will fall over boxes of unpacked cans. (We know this from experience.) But we are getting better at it. Today we actually asked for and got some fresh carne (beef) to fry for supper. Another place to shop in Antigua is the outdoor mercado which is several square blocks of canvas-covered spaces occupied by families from outer villages who need to sell their produce, meat products, grains, and spices. Here, you can choose your carne and a man with a cleaver will lop off as much as you want. So far, we can't bring ourselves to buy meat that hangs open-air at outdoor temperatures. But many people do just that. These outdoor markets are just like those in Jerusalem. When I tried to take a picture just like this one in Jerusalem, the butcher raised his cleaver AT ME. There were no threats here, thank goodness. We will eat well today.
How cool! One of my very favorite things in the Yucatan was the huge mercado and seeing all the beautiful piles of spices. Cook your meat thoroughly! I would avoid the open-air meat The locals have immunities you don't.
ReplyDeleteI remember the man with the cleaver in Jerusalem. That was something else!