Vegetables and Fruits

Today we were driven to the outdoor market on the opposite end of Doha from where we live. Believe it or not, I have lived here long enough (one month!) that I can comparison shop a bit. I love to bargain and I love to watch how good the sellers are at their trade. In the end, it doesn't matter one way or the other to me. If they smile at the end, I am likely to buy no matter what the price! The game is just fun. I don't really enjoy grocery shopping at home much. Here, it is actually interesting. Since we are still walking most places, we still shop locally, which means AlMeera - not where Americans do their shopping! Clearly, Americans shop at LuLu, Carrefour and a place called Spinneys. We have walked those aisles also, but we tend to look like everyone else. At AlMeera and this outdoor market, we are "special". That means we stick out like sore thumbs. What is interesting is not the prices and the bargaining, but the places where the fruits and vegetables originate. There are oranges from Pakistan, apples from China and New Zealand, bananas from the Phillipines, dates from Saudi Arabia, something that resembles apricots from India, some variety of oranges from Egypt, a special type of apple from France, and other vegetables from Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Iran. The olive oil we buy comes from Saudi Arabia as does our jam and oats. We buy fresh lebanese yogurt and rice from Dubai. And the tea is Lipton! (I guess I wondered off the fruits and vegetables a bit!) At the end of our shopping trips we stand in line for our 5 pieces of freshly baked bread - lebanese style. That's my favorite part of the shopping trip. Again, I have digressed. Today I watched a man clean the small fish that is dried and bagged. He was back behind boxes and other goods, hidden from the public. I will tell you why. He was dirty and barefoot and was cleaning the fish on the pavement. I managed to snap a picture - to remind myself never, ever to buy dried fish in clear cellophane bags. There were also other food items being sold in cellophane bags that were not fish. After what I saw today, I won't buy that food either. In fact, I thought about buying some cinnamon sticks to boil on the stove and give the apartment a fresh aroma. That was also sold near where the man was cleaning the fish. I decided against buying that after seeing the man clean the fish. So, was it bad? Yes!!!!! J. decided to buy a bag of fresh fruit at a stall far away from this man that cleaned and dried the fish. We have no idea what the fruit is. I encouraged him to buy the fruit, but I am not eating it. I did not tell him about the man with the fish. I will let you know if J. lives to tell about it. I have decided to wait 3 days before I eat the fruit. Three seems like a safe number to me. I think food poisoning would set in by that time. Tonight when he was eating the fruit I just said I was full. After thinking about the man and the fish, I really was full. The hotels in Doha put on a food tasting at the local exhibition hall parking lot. It's like "Taste of Chicago". The cuisine is all middle eastern. Four of us went and we all tried different foods. I tried Persian, Indian and Lebanese food. To top it off, I saw a dessert that looked like chocolate mousse. Looks are deceiving. It was not chocolate and it was not mousse! Like the dried fish in cellophane bags ---- I won't be eating that again.