SAVUSAVU - FIJI : Market Mini-Series

I lived in Savusavu for about eight years. As is the way when you live somewhere, you don't go around taking photos like a tourist. Whenever I went to the local market it was to do my normal shopping, just like everyone else. 

However, when I was commissioned to write a feature about visiting cruise ships I had the perfect excuse to take some photos in my local market without feeling self-conscious.

This is perhaps my favourite photo taken on the day I went into town with my camera to capture cruise ship passengers visiting our town. These ladies are selling lemons 'by the heap'. Yes, lemons with green skin. What's more, the flesh is bright orange and on more than one occasion I saw visitors bite into what they thought was an orange. Their expressions of mouth-puckering surprise was priceless.

These tied bundles of roots are Taro - called Dalo in Fiji. This is their equivalent of potatoes and, like the versatile potato, can be prepared in all the same ways. I never particularly liked the taste or texture of Dalo, but the Fijians eat it in mammoth quantities.

This Indo-Fijian market seller is preparing Jackfruit. Sadly, I don't have a photo of a whole Jackfruit to post, but it's an enormous knobbly green skinned fruit - roughly the size of a large watermelon. I have only ever eaten Jackfruit cooked into a curry and it's delicious.

Here you can see an array of Dalo, unripe bananas, lemons, chillies, coconuts and cassava. 

The wonderful thing about markets like this is that the produce is super-fresh, hand-picked (often that morning) - and the profits go to the locals who are selling it. 

Whenever I came across fruit or vegetables I didn't recognise, the market ladies were always happy to tell me what they were called and how to prepare them. Invariably, the instructions were: peel and eat, peel and boil, or peel and fry!

Finally... here is the lead photo used for my cruise ship article. I took this photograph from the deck of my house at about 6am.

I hope you've enjoyed my latest Market Series post. 

I'll be heading north west next week to a city replete with French influences. Can you guess the city?