I went to market

Appears in
Food and Travels: Asia
Food and Travels

By Alastair Hendy

Published 2004

  • About

Hot, sweet, salty and sour wraps, mien kum, are sold by hawkers in their components, neatly poly-bagged in kit form, for home assembly.

It’s hot, it’s steamy, and it’s exhaustingty busy. Bowls of this and woks of that fly, dip, flip and duck. Wide-line noodles and deep pans of steaming stock glint. Lipstick flashes of chopped chilli spin from boards into bowls, and the salt of nam pla (fish sauce) steeps the shadows. Saucing, dipping and spooning, shoppers eat, satiating tongues and convalescing swollen feet. I park-up, too, and sweat over a bowl of soup noodle bobbing with fish ball. Phew, it’s hot, but deliciously so.