Although I have visited my paternal hometown many times, this is the first time I have gone to the market with my mother and had many interesting and memorable experiences.
Early in the morning, my mother woke me up early. Back in the countryside, I was busy playing with my grandfather's dog, staying up late, so my mother kept calling me but I still didn't want to get out of the warm blanket. Only when my mother told me to go to the market to eat hot fried cakes did I wake up because my stomach was growling.
It was interesting the first time I went to the country market with my mother. My paternal hometown is near the Luoc River. The market is held next to the dike. Compared to markets, supermarkets, and shops in the city, the country market has its own unique features.
The early morning wind was cool on the dike. After cycling for about 20 minutes, my mother and I arrived at the market. It was only 7am but the market was already bustling and crowded. The market was held on a small plot of land at the foot of the dike. The market had no roof, nor was it divided into stalls like those on the street.
Following my mother through the rows of stalls, I saw that the ladies only needed to spread out a small tarp, or sometimes just a few banana leaves, to display their wares. The rural market, though small, had a wide variety of goods, mainly local products.
Most of the vegetables on sale are fresh. They seem to be picked early in the morning by women and girls and brought to sell. Each house only has a few bunches but they are of all kinds.
Near the plastic goods area, there are only two stalls selling pork and chicken. Pork sold in the countryside is really strange. I see that every time my mother goes to the market on the street, the meat is usually wrapped in plastic bags, but here the seller skewers it on bamboo strings. My mother said that the pork in my grandfather's hometown market is delicious because they feed it mainly with rice bran and vegetables. I have never seen the food that my mother told me about, so I am quite curious. Today I must try the crispy fried pork to see how the taste of pork in the countryside is different from that in the city.
After wandering around for a while, my mother bought a basket full of vegetables, roots, meat, and even some cassava. She said she would now take me to the place with many delicious dishes in the market.
Different from the vegetable, fruit and meat area. The food area is set up in several small stalls, covered with green tarps. There are only 3-4 stalls but there are enough dishes. There is a stall selling fried cakes that the ladies knead, knead and fry right on the spot. Besides fried cakes, there are also stalls selling sticky rice, rice rolls, sweet potatoes, vermicelli and a very unique green rice cake. My mother said green rice cake is a local specialty so she bought a few to enjoy.
Today the weather was chilly so the smell of hot fried cakes was fragrant. Knowing that I was hungry, my mother led me to sit next to the boiling oil frying pan. The round, white fried cakes turned golden brown in just a moment in the pan and smelled delicious. The vendor took the cakes out onto a tray to drain the oil and then wrapped them in a neatly cut banana leaf to give me to eat to cool them down.
He told my mother that he had to wake up at 4am every day to prepare the filling, and the dough was made the night before. The donuts from the countryside market were soft and fragrant, with a rich bean filling and a few pieces of shredded young coconut, so I ate two in no time. The vendor introduced that the donuts were made from sticky rice flour grown by his family, and the oil was lard, so they tasted better. It was truly enticing to eat hot donuts in the middle of winter.
After I finished eating the donuts, I saw that the market was getting less crowded. My mother said that the market in the countryside was only open until 9-10 am, not all day like in the city. Most of the people in the house brought whatever they had to the market to sell, so the goods were simple but delicious.
Although I have visited my paternal hometown many times, this was the first time I went to the market and had many interesting and memorable experiences.
LE HUONG GIANG (Grade 8A, Tan Binh Secondary School, Hai Duong City)