For some rea­son, in the first cou­ple months of being here I was a bit skep­ti­cal at the prospect of any change in the offer­ings of my local wet mar­kets. As if China, because it didn’t observe Day­light Sav­ings, also didn’t change its agri­cul­tural output!?

But as Feb­ru­ary turned into March, and small oblong man­goes that fit in the small of your palm replaced the tiny car­tons of straw­ber­ries (yes, straw­ber­ries were abun­dant in Jan­u­ary– how crazy does that seem!), my fear of a non-changing mar­ket has slowly evap­o­rated. Just this past week, I’ve noticed more new pro­duce spring­ing up at my favorite ven­dors. Stalks of aspara­gus the size of car­rots, and vines of a leafy plant that might be bay leaves sold by the branch, all over the place (I plan to inquire about this bay-leaf-I’m hop­ing it’s basil-plant on my next trip).

Toma­toes and cucum­bers have been at the mar­kets since I’ve been here, and they’re still hold­ing their place along the scal­lions, chives, daikon, corn, red onions (not a yel­low onion for miles) and chi­nese cel­ery. I’ve got­ten used to cook­ing with the veg­eta­bles that have been avail­able so far, and am cer­tainly look­ing for­ward to the new crops of good­ies that are wait­ing to be revealed!

And now for your view­ing plea­sure, a fish-bludgeoning scene from the mar­ket, fit for a fish hor­ror flick:

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