It's all bananas...and fish

Sorry I seem to have been absent for a couple of months...I was still here, mostly, but well, the surf got up; the sun came out; the beach beckoned; Christmas holidays came along and I succumbed to the temptations of putting everything off to tomorrow..and then the next day..and so on.

Getting back on it now I must say that whilst in the UK last week I had the misfortune of having to shop in the pinnacle of the axis of evil.. Tesco. Walking past a bizarre section of plastic wrapped yellow things of identical colour, shape and size calling themselves bananas, I promised I would upload a pic of my local fruit and veg market.

Located on the main street of Galle, called...you guessed it..Main St., behind the flower market and next to the fish market - which is currently being rebuilt following the tsunami of 2004 - sits what is known as the Fruit market.

 

It consists of about 8 small traders bunched into one side of an old building (the other side is the same number selling flowers). They sell fruit fresh from the local farms or those further away in the hill country - Nuwara Eliya and such places.

Adorning all the stalls like net curtains hang curved branches packed with bananas clinging on like post-its on the computer.

This is what bananas really look like. Please note that none of them are straight and they come, naturally, in different shapes and sizes. Some are not even yellow.

In SL bananas have been enjoyed for over 12,000 years and the oldest book of medicine in the country dating back to 341 BC, 'Saratha Sangrahaya', describes the medicinal properties of various parts of the banana plant. As such the Sri Lankans know they are offering a treat when they proffer a 'kehil'. Some are sweet - the small red ones in particular - and all are delicious.

Quite clearly this fisherman must have been aware that my pictures were going to be shown to those less fortunate than himself because with a smile that said - 'you ain't never seen something like this' (pronunciation is my own) he heaved this huge yellow fin tuna fish onto the slab and set about slicing it up.

 

A kilo of tuna costs between Rs600 - 700 (GBP3.60 - 4.20). This fish has probably been caught only a few hours before and the chefs of The River Cafe remarked, when they were out here last year, that the 'fish caught to plate' time was, by a long way, far shorter than what they were used to when serving their customers. When Rick Stein was here he probably said that these were the most delicious fish he had ever tasted.

I have added it here to show that not all fishmongers wear silly hats and hair nets.....let alone shirts.