The Glory of the Local Markets
Our supermarkets are filled with a large choices of fresh, perfectly sized vegetables but a trip to your local Asian or fruit and veg market will make you understand that the big players in the food area just don’t stock some of the nicest vegetables. Maybe they think we can’t handle something different? Well I’m here to tell you, they are wrong. Let me show you just a few that we uncovered. They are now staples and readily seen on our table.
RUSTY’S MARKET, CAIRNS
While holidaying in Cairns in the Far North of Australia, “He who loves all food” suggested going to Rusty’s the local fruit market to buy our weekly supplies. We passed the tropical fruit stalls and I made a note to go back there as I noted several unusual fruits but headed for the vegetable section. Now I do regard myself as a good cook and thought I was familiar with newer varieties of vegetable like bok choy and chinese broccoli etc but I was simply amazed at the number and variety of vegetables I had never seen before.
What are they called?
Most of the stalls had the vegetables beautifully displayed in neat bunches and tidy stacks. The fresh bok choy and spring onions were all tied up with string: so fresh, so crisp I thought “Stir fry”. I pick out several bunches then spied a rather odd-looking brownish, yellow blob. Neither of us knew what it was so we asked. The answer….
“It’s a Yam Bean eh!”
MEET THE HUMBLE YAM BEAN
“A what bean? A yam bean? What do I do with it?” The friendly stall owner was delighted to tell us all about how to use them. You must give them a try she insisted. “Peel them like a mushroom and you can eat the white flesh raw or you can cook it. Raw they look and taste like the most delicious apple and cooked they stay crunchy and are very like water chestnuts.” First we ate them raw, fabulous! So crunchy and juicy but not too sweet. I cut juliennes and adding them to my stir fry. What a wonderful crunch. Yum! They were sensational!
DEAD BROWN BALLS ON STICKS….Logans.
We headed to the next fruit stall where we had some little brown balls on sticks.
Again these horrid brown, dead looking balls were being sold and busily stuffed into bags. What are they, you might ask? Well these are LOGANS. When you peel a logan you will discover a lovely lychee type fruit. Who knew?
It pops out easily and is so sweet and scrumptious. Note they are very high in fructose.
Thank goodness I did notice some supermarkets have these occasionally.
A ZUCCHINI OF SORTS
As you know we are keen gardeners. This year I planted six seedling bought at a local market and they are now fruiting. But what are they? Well they are YELLOW BALL ZUCCHINI and they are about the size of a tennis ball. We grow zucchini but these don’t act the same at all. They climb and spread and the fruit hangs. They looked like cucumbers which hadn’t ripened properly.
I wasn’t sure what to do with these either but “He who loves his roast on Sunday” suggested that almost all vegetable are better roasted so I popped them in the roasting pan. Wow!! What a treat! They roasted well with potatoes and tasted like pumpkin. What a wonderful discovery. They also are easy on the BBQ or the hot griddle plate.
Do go out and discover these and other new veg and fruit. Don’t be frightened to ask what to do with them and you may discover your new favourite veg or fruit. Try snow pea shoots, lychee, rambutans and dragon fruit.
A world of new favours awaits your taste buds.
