Went to the Sunday evening outdoor market at Bangsar Village today. We chose to take the train, carried our ecologically-minded cloth bags, and luckily our umbrellas. As soon as we got off the train at the Bangsar stop, the rain started pouring, with the wind it was coming down almost sideways. We ran into some friends on the train so we just waited out the storm chatting and learning about China, Singapore and Australia.

Bangsar Market is this truly great outdoor market. Fresh fruit and vegetables galore…stand after stand after stand. Being our first time to visit this market, we made a “newbie” mistake and purchased a bunch of veggies at the very first stand we came to…everything looked so good we couldn’t pass it up…fresh corn on the cob, celery, carrots, sweet peppers, hot peppers, broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, egg plant, endive, okra, ….all so fresh and all calling out to us. Now ladened down with heavy bags we moved down the row of stalls….the next one had nicer looking carrots, the next bigger eggplant, brighter red peppers…what were we thinking??? We slung our bags over our shoulders and continued on. Took our time selecting fruit, only the very best for us this time…picked up some sweet plums, limes, mangoes, oranges, passion fruit (lilikoi in Hawaii), bananas, and langsat (next week’s Fruit of the Week) But the market is much more than fruits and vegetables….fresh flowers, jewelry, chicken satay roasting over coals, fresh fish, doughnuts cooking in hot oil, crafts….a wonderfully large public market. We loved the atmosphere..everyone carrying shopping bags filled to the brim with food, groups enjoying the just-cooked food, laughter, meeting of friends, families out together…it is similar like Pike Place Market or Pybus but larger. And the prices were amazingly cheap. Next time I think we’ll drive our car so we won’t have to feel like pack-animals hauling our fresh produce home.

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And speaking of cars…we just purchased a nice little MYVI SE for Heidi. It’s used but well taken care of, white, automatic, peppy little engine, black interior. The woman who owned it went home to Iran about 8 months ago and has decided not to return, hence the car was put up for sale. We got a great deal…they are throwing in a new battery, servicing the entire vehicle, and throwing on new tires. We’ll pick it up in about a week after all the paperwork is complete. We’ll send you pics with Heidi at the wheel !!! Look out Kuala Lumpur…now they’ll be two of us on the road !!!!

MYVI (like My Vee)

FRUIT OF THE WEEK
Featured this week are Dragon Fruit and Mango. Dragon Fruit, also known as Pitaya, is somewhat similar to Kiwi…fleshy innards filled with little black seeds and same texture, perhaps softer…and a lot larger. The outside is bright red and inside is an intense, almost burgundy color. (there is also white, yellow and pink DragonFruit). You would expect a fruit of such brilliant color to have taste-bud popping flavor…but it’s rather bland…kind of like a tasteless melon Low in calories you find slices of DragonFruit at most buffets. Sometimes made into wine and juice, (haven’t found that yet) Cost at the store is about $2.00 US for one.

You all know mangoes but mangoes are something to behold here. At all the grocery stores and fruit stands, we get our pick of mangoes. They come from all over…we find mangoes from Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan, Pakistan, Philippines, India, Bangladesh, Vietnam…each one a bit different..different taste, different shape, different colors. I love the rainbow mangoes from Thailand, long and thin almost saccharine in taste, and until today, the Pakistan one my favorite…but today I had the “bestest” mango ever…from Taiwan. Big and fat and oh so tantalizingly sweet. Great chopped up and added to yogurt!!

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We leave for Singapore on Friday. Can’t wait.