Tag: wet market
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Not too chicken
“Hi sister! What do you want?” Lai Fun was sitting on a stool reading the newspapers. It was the lull of the afternoon when most market stalls were closing for the day. The signboard above their stall says Fatty Supplier. “My father-in-law and brother-in-law were very fat, so we called them… fatty suppliers!” The husband-and-wife…
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Fruits of labour
Say hey to May! May and her brother work together selling fruits at the Clementi West market. “My mother is old, she stays home to rest.” In this dizzying array of fruits, her favourite is the avocado which she loves to “blend with milk to drink.” There are about 5-6 fruit stalls located in close…
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What’s your beef?
“I started helping my father in primary school. At first it was only during school holidays, but then I left school to help him every day. While he was doing deliveries, I took care of the stall. At the time, I was still quite young, so I found the work quite fun. I taught myself…
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Sweet Stalker
In Singapore, you can find refreshing cold sugarcane juice at the local markets. The juice is made from extracting sap directly from sugarcane stalks, without using additives. Sugarcane is not a fruit, but it is actually a type of grass that looks like bamboo. Each mug of fresh sugarcane juice costs $1 to $1.50 (less…
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Dry Season
Ah Xin began working in the provision shop as a sprightly 10-year-old, enthusiastically helping her parents. Fast forward fifty years, and her vibrant spirit still shines through as she stocks her cozy little store with an array of dried and preserved goods: dried red chilli, dried fish, dried mushrooms, dried chrysanthemum flowers, dried tofu… you get…
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Intense & Intimate
I don’t always get a chance to chat with the traders. For instance, just as I took this photo, a flock of older Chinese and Malay women surrounded me on all sides and essentially nudged me from the scene so that they could pick through the vegetables while firing an endless bullet of questions to…
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The early bird catches the… fish!
Mr Ang has been selling fish at the Jurong East market in Singapore for the past 50 years (he’s 75 years old), following after his father who also sold fish. However, he advised his son not to pursue the business, especially with his higher education, so his son now works “in an air-conditioned office”. Mr.…
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It never hurts to ask
It never hurts to ask! When Lou Flemming was a 17-year-old teenager in Baltimore, he spotted the owner of Faidley’s Seafood running a food stand at a festival. There was a long and winding line of customers waiting for their crab cakes, so Leo walked over to the owner, Bill Devine, and asked him whether he needed…
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Bringing home the bacon
A butcher shop at Lexington Market in Baltimore (USA) Microbusinesses typically offer a pathway of upward mobility for immigrants and, today, many stall owners at this market are Korean. Bill Devine, the owner of Faidley’s Seafood, explains the transition of vendors: “Wave after wave of new immigrants. This guy over here isn’t Krause anymore, he’s…
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Fishy Business
Samuel, a former accountant, now wakes up at 1.00am every morning to get fresh fish from the port. After 12 years working in accountancy, he decided to switch careers and run a market stall instead due to migraines at the office. When I asked him about the dangers of overfishing, Samuel explained that the biggest…
Shopkeeper Stories 