Hit the beach
This past Saturday, Daniel (one of the managers) took me to check out the Pacific. I guess technically, you could call it a beach, but California it was not.It had been raining for days up until then, but it cleared up for us to check things out along the shore. In the picture, you're looking towards mainland China. Shanghai is the closest city in that general direction.
Anyway, not much happened along the shore. There were a few folks wandering around and a family digging for crabs. I asked Daniel if that was going to be dinner for them and he sort of gave me an odd look and said, "of course."
But the real action was happening on the other side of the beach. There was a large group of buildings along the harbor with cars and scooter overflowing the parking lot. And inside those buildings? The fish market!I knew Asians had a healthy diet of seafood, but now I saw where they all got it. The fish market was huge and packed with people. It's hard to describe, but you know how crazy tourist markets are with weird vendors constantly harassing you to buy some crappy trinket made of wood? This was like that, but instead of wood trinkets, it was fish. And not just fish -- it seemed squid, crab, and shrimp made up the majority of what folks were selling. Some things were alive and swimming in tanks, while others were dead in baskets. I saw a large box of anchovies (or some minnow-like fish) on sale for about a $1.
Which brings me to my next point. Everything was dirt cheap. When we first walked in, we were greated by this guy, who I'll call The Fish Monger. I didn't understant a word he was saying, but I swear he could have worked a few auctions in his life.In the picture, he's holding up a basket of crabs. I can't remember how much they were going for, but my translator Daniel seemed to think they were a good deal. After the crabs, he started filling up the basket with fish (normal-looking fish, by the way). He'd throw some in, saying something to the crowd like, "not done yet," then throw some more in. He did that a few times and literally filled the basket. His asking price? $10 for the whole thing. That's a fantastic deal here and it seemed to be there, too as those fish were sold in no time. He sold two or three more baskets of fish before we left.
I asked Daniel if he ever came here to shop for his family, but he said no, it was too much food for just he, his wife, and daughter. I knew that feeling well. I get it every time I walk into Costco.
