The day before yesterday I went to an Indonesian Traditional Fish Market in Batam Indonesia. It was my first visit to a Traditional Market in this country and it was quite an interesting experience for me. The photo above is of a traditional fish market in Jakarta Indonesia. I did not take any photos of the actual market I went to for several reasons. For one, I already got tons of looks for sticking out like a sore thumb and because I am a foreigner there really is no reason to bring anymore attention to myself. The actual fish market I went to was an inside market and it was quite huge! Many lights and decor lit up the space of the market.
I stood there in awe because I got to see so many different creatures that I had never seen before! They had a huge array of sea life both big and small, alive or dried! Some of the things I seen...I wouldn't eat. Anyway, they also had pork heads hanging on stands, chickens and their insides, and many other animals waiting to be butchered and cut for consumers. We bought shrimp, medium sized fishes, dried baby fish, along with some vegetables.
The fisherman usually fish and lay their catch in ice for the following day. The fish lay in metal pans like shown in the photo above. If the customer chooses they may have the head removed, intestines removed, de-scaled, etc. For the larger fishes (which some are about as big as a medium sized shark) the customer may chose to have the whole thing or purchase only sections. It was very enjoyable, colorful, and somewhat nauseating experience.
I found it odd that many of the shoppers walked around poking at the fish. I asked my father why they do that and he told me that if a fish is soft then it isn't any good anymore and fresh fish should have firmer meat. Well, at least now I know how to pick out a fresh fish from a rotten one. ::smiles::
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