Market Marked Differences

What it means to go to the market can vary from place to place. When we were traveling with our kids from 2015 to 2017 we often when to the market. There were different words for them, and there were different styles. We even have them in the United States.

Of course, there is the supermarket. You find that in most (but not all) places. They are not all entirely the same, but they aren’t all that different either.

Whereas the market can be quite different. In the United States we have farmer’s markets in which farms send people with goods to sell from a stand on certain days of the week. Some of them are temporary; they build the stand and take it down each time. You can find these in many cities. Other places, the stands are permanent and inside a building. Though it is generally not open seven days a week (or even five), they are open multiple times during the week. This is closer to the market we find in other countries.

One big difference is that these markets tend to be open every day. (Sometimes closed on whichever day is the Sabbath for that country.) They are usually much larger than the markets in the States. Some are laid out with meat sellers spread around and fruit sellers spread around and baked good sellers spread around. Others are more like department stores. There is a fruit section and all the fruit vendors are around that. There is a meat section and all the meat sellers are there.

Also what many of these markets have is a food court. They might call it various things, but that’s what it is. Here you find stands with prepared foods along the walls or the pillars and then tables throughout the area where you can sit to eat. Just like the food court in the mall, right? Well, there are differences.

Mercado Santa Clara - flower section and fruit section

 

Yesterday, Alrica and I went to Mercado Santa Clara. This is a market of the sort I was describing, what here is called a Municipal Market. This market is set up in sections, a fruit area, flower area, dry goods area, meat area (on the middle floor) and at the top is the patio de comidas (the food court.) There are entrances from the street which take you in at the bottom level (fruit, flowers, dry goods). There are other entrances from the street which take you up exterior stairs and land you in the patio de comidas.

We got lunch in the patio de comidas. Alrica had a rice dish and I don’t know what it was called. I got Caldo de Gallina (which is chicken soup with some delicious grain in it.) But they don’t cut up the chicken into bits. They must use chicken to make the broth, but when it is served, they put a quarter chicken in it, skin and all. I got a drumstick and thigh with my soup. This would be fine, except the only utensil I received was a spoon. I guess you eat it with your hands? That’s what I did.

I found the patio de comidas overwhelming. There were many choices and I walked around seeing what I could have. Of course, multiple stands were serving the same things. But one key difference here is that many of the stands have a woman shouting at you. You could just read the sign that tells you what they serve. But in addition, the woman is calling out the items on the menu. Even when I was within three feet of her, trying to read the sign, she was still shouting, and facing me. And this goes on all around the patio de comidas. So, the space is loud and difficult to concentrate in.

For the locals, this is probably the norm. They didn’t see bothered at all by it. For me, I had a hard time reading the signs and decided what to eat within the cacophony.

I discovered other differences too. You say what you want but then they don’t give it to you. Someone walks you to a table and sets it down there. You ask how much it costs and then give that person your money who goes away to make change. I assumed I was supposed to follow her to get my change. That was apparently not the case. They weren’t mad, but it was apparent I was not following the social norm.

Here is another difference in the market, imprecision. This isn’t meant to be deprecating. In some ways, this is wonderful. Let me explain.

Alrica bought some red bananas. Side note: Much like when we were in India, we are experiencing many types of bananas here in Ecuador. In the U.S. you only get one variety, the cavendish. But here there are finger banana and red bananas and more that I don’t know the names of. Okay, back to our regularly scheduled blogpost.

Alrica asked for cuatro, four of the red bananas. But the woman at the fruit stand took a huge bunch of them and just broke off a piece. (Not four of them, it was actually five because that was easier to break off.) At an American market, these would then be weighed and a price per pound would be used to calculate what you owe. No, here she breaks it off and looks at it and says it will cost one dollar.

Red bananas, Cherimoya, Uvillas, Tuna (not the fish, the prickly pair)

 

We have found this at the fruit stands throughout the city. They don’t seem overly concerned about weighing most items. (They weigh things like berries, but not much else.) They just give you a price, usually rounded to the nearest quarter.

I like that imprecision. I’ve often thought in the U.S. that if I just peeled my bananas before I got to the register, think of how much money I would save. Yes, my bananas would get smushed and rotten, but I’d just have to eat them fast. Here, that’s not a concern. So long as no one is yelling at me from three feet away.