Shopping at the Free Market - not as in $ free!

The free market is not as you may think a market with "free" food - but it refers to the ability to purchase foods at liberty - a reference to a time when food was not readily available - as you can see by these pictures - food is abundant at this market - of every type. From fresh peppers to dried peppers which are dried whole, crushed or powdered. There was every imaginable fresh vegetable and many all of us had never seen before. I need to refer back to the fact that one of the aspects of this group tour along with it being a cultural tour for the kids and us - it had a culinary/food focus - from interesting restaurants to markets to opportunities to cook ourselves - which was a fun twist to all the cultural events and sightseeing. Hanging from the hooks are pigs legs. I have never seen a place that does not waste any part of an animal's body! There was an amazing selection of items including fresh eel - that is what is swimming around in the steel bowl. One of the last pictures is a display of cooked pig parts - you could get roasted pigs feet, nose, tongue and parts I don't dare mention! We did not try any of these I can assure you. We did buy fresh lettuces, mushrooms, some fresh beans and bean sprouts - also some cilantro and green onions - I love the picture of the hanging onions - they are actually garlic greens - not the scallions we see in the stores. Armfuls of fresh greens/mushrooms and onions cost about $2. There was also a number of meat sellers there selling all types of meat - from fresh chicken feet to all types of beef parts - they are very big on the livers, gizzards, brains, and they love chicken feet soup! Now, we were at the market about 2 hours after lunch and we were told we were heading to the hot pot restaurant to make dinner. We really couldn't believe it since we had just finished lunch -- on the other hand, many of the kids had not eaten much lunch since it was so spicy and so
the kids all got ice cream on the street which had become a daily habit for the kids since some of them - particularly Ben at about 5% of what was served and seemed to live on white rice, noodles and as much ice cream as they could talk us into buying! Hannah would try many foods but the spicy was a bit too much for her as well! On to hot pot cooking!