Friday is Market Day

Friday is our market day. We get up early (7AM) to head out to the market by 8AM. This morning was somewhat delayed by rain. We go to the market at Jalan Othman in Old town, Petaling Jaya S2. The market is a non-descript three story building with the ground floor containing the wet market (with a separate non-halal section), a vegetable market, and a “food court. Dry goods are sold in the upper levels. We travel by RapidKL local bus T505. Fare is RM 1.00 or $0.33. The ride is about 15 minutes. We pass car dealers, city offices, city police departments, residential areas, and the Campbell Soup factory.

Our Purchases:



Today we purchased: three tomatoes, two carrots, ginger, green pepper, coriander leaf, romaine lettuce, iceberg lettuce, red hot peppers, small bok choy, a papaya, a pineapple, green beans, and some other small stuff. We spent RM 17.40 ($5.87) with five different vendors.


Breakfast is served:


We ate at the roti canai vendor. Liz had murtabak, which is a stuffed grilled bread made with the same dough as the roti canai and filled with various meat based products. It appears the filling is similar to a frittata. While eating, I noticed a man across from us. He wore a red polo shirt emblazed with “McDelivery” with a phone number. The local McDonalds have a delivery service.

What we avoded:
We avoided the wet market at Liz’s request. Evidently she does not like to see where her meat comes from or how it gets to the small pieces we see in our grocery stores. Liz has a history of this. In Raleigh she did not like the Chinese market fishmonger section where they killed the fish for you. But here is a picture from the food court.


The Bread Search:
As we waited for our return bus, I saw a bake shop called The Baker's Cottage. In our relentless search for good bread, I went to look. They had bread, but it is all “square”, spongy, and wrapped in plastic. In one academic paper I found, a researcher said a big improvement had come to Malaysian bread trade with the licensing of the “Roman Meal” recipe. The last free form loaf (also spongy) had burnt bamboo charcoal included as an ingredient. Chocolate, red bean paste and other ingredients are found in local breads. Maybe I will learn to bake bread in my “toaster oven”. Liz wants bread with 8 to 10 whole grain, seed and nut ingredients.