Wet it may be, but only in the literal sense. VERNE MAREE discovers, at long last, that wet-market shopping is a great way to go.

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It’s 8am on a Tuesday morning, and I’m well equipped. I have a roomy shopping bag; plenty of small notes and change; thick-soled wedge Crocs to raise me above the floors and prevent me from slipping; and my friend, Julie Lim Sheridan, to guide me through the potential pitfalls of shopping at a wet market.

We meet at the car park of the Tekka Temporary Market on Race Course Road, Little India. Julie is the ideal guide – Singaporean, married to an Irishman, and a notable foodie and cook of both Asian and Western cuisines.

In fact, the first section is completely dry, comprising dozens of Indian clothing and other stalls that have not yet opened for the day, and an interesting-looking Antiques and Collectibles shop that has just pulled up the shutters. Next comes the hawker food centre – also dry, unless you count the beer. It’s halal on the left, Chinese on the right. “There’s some very good Indian food here,” notes Julie. “Especially at Alauddin’s. The man can be a bit grumpy, but there’s a long queue for breakfast on Saturdays.”


Vegetable Man

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Victor Chia is Julie’s favourite vegetable man, and it’s not hard to see why. A partner in top Thai restaurant Sweet Salty Spicy, he stocks every imaginable Thai ingredient, from noodles, palm sugar and spices to shiny-fresh chillies of all sizes and fire-levels, fragrant coriander, limes, mini-brinjals, and green peppercorns.

“The good thing is you can buy all your veggies from this one store,” says Julie, pointing out piles of the best-looking rocket ($3.50 a kilogram) and baby spinach leaves in Singapore. “Thai sweet basil is completely different from Italian basil, and he stocks both.”

Business is hotting up, and the housewives and helpers are starting to jostle a bit. Victor seems to know each one by name, and finds time to explain to me that he gets his stock from all over the world. Beautiful cauliflower is $3 a kilo; the corn-on-the-cob still has its leafy green husk; avocados are $1.60 each and they turn out to be excellent eating. Generally, the prices are not that much cheaper than at a supermarket, but the quality and freshness is guaranteed. That said, a nearby stall has really good Malaysian tomatoes at $1 per kilo.

Photographer-for-today Shamus points out that at $5 for two, the mangoes at another stall aren’t particularly cheap. But I’ve never seen this particular variety at Cold Storage or Carrefour – they’re known as elephant tooth mangoes, and are firm and delicious. Perfect honey mangoes are three for $5; mangosteens $2.50 for a kilo; small Hawaiian papayas $1 each; and Thai lychees $5 per kilo – yes, please!


He is the Egg Man

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Frustrated by the smallness of the eggs at your local supermarket? Try the Tekka egg man: just $2.40 for 10 jumbos, and $2.10 for slightly smaller ones that are allegedly free range. Then (solving the ancient riddle) comes the chicken, plump, fresh and glistening – I choose one for $7 and chicken man kindly chops off its head and feet.

When I make the faux pas of asking the mutton and goat man if he has any oxtail – “We don’t mix them here!” – he politely points me to the beef man. Julie always buys her oxtail from this stall, and I know from delicious experience how good it is. Noting that it has no visible fat, I buy a big one (1kg) for $15.
The spice man nearby sells me a bushel of cinnamon bark for just $1, and four fat bulbs of garlic for 50 cents.

 

 

Alive, Alive-Oh!

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“Wendy Lim is my crab lady,” is how Julie introduces me to the pretty woman engaged in shelling a mountain of cockles – “for vongole pasta sauce”, she adds, ever the foodie. The little shellfish produce a surprising amount of astonishingly red blood, perhaps not the best sight at what is, after all, breakfast time.

Well-spoken Wendy is not just a crab lady; she sells a huge array of fish and seafood. Crabs try valiantly to wave their hobbled pincers, shellfish apparently known as gong-gongs wriggle fretfully, and the mussels – just $2 a kilo! – are still hoping that this is only a bad dream.

“We have a friend who goes to the Jurong fishing port to buy what we need from there, and we import the crabs ourselves from South Africa, Sri Lanka and Indonesia.” And after a long day at the market, Wendy joins husband Thomas at their restaurant business, Crab Delicacy at 3 Outram Road.

“Have you ever eaten there?” I ask Julie, sotte voce. “Of course! They do the best curry crab ever.”

Wendy, along with the other stallholders, no doubt, is looking forward to moving to the new Tekka Market premises. Not far from the current Racecourse Road temporary location, it is slated to open next month, August. See you there?
 

ALSO TRY

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Chinatown Market
Block 336 Smith Street

Farrer Market
Block 7 Farrer Road

KK Market
corner of Serangoon and Rochor Roads

Holland Village Market
Lorong Mambong (next to the carpark)

Marine Parade Market
opposite Parkway Parade, East Coast

Redhill Market
79 Redhill Lane

Tekka Market
Racecourse Road

Tiong Bahru Market
30 Seng Poh Road

Toa Payoh Central Market
next to the MRT station