Welcome to Vietnam: Saigon Meat Market

I went grocery shopping with my Vietnamese teacher and she was going to show me where I can find organic vegetables and where I could find good cuts of meat that were well priced.

We headed over to Tan My an outdoor market in PMH. We have several grocery stores similar to the states nearby but I wanted to shop where the locals shopped.

We arrived at 9am and it was already extremely hot, I had brought 2 umbrellas one for myself and one for Kim but it was near impossible to hold them and shop.

The first stall we stopped at was a pork stand. Kim grabbed the hanging pork and said you see this Lyna, this is good meat. She grabbed it again this time with both hands and pointed out why it was a good slab and then unhooded it herself and handed it to the vendor to weigh. Kim touched me on the shoulder and said you're gonna learn a lot today. I was shocked. I couldn't believe the way she and everyone there was handling the meat. I mean this is raw, uncleaned, unrefridgerated meat and they were touching it with their bare hands. I looked desparately for exact change but only had a large bill, so the vendor with her bacteria filled hands gave me my change and possibly a flesh eating bacteria.

Kim looks over at me and said, "did you bring an umbrella for me, do you want me to hold one?" I was terrified. "I got it" I said, hoping that my umbrellas would remain sanitary. We moved onto other stalls and row after row all the meat was just sitting out on the tables or hanging. They had all sorts of animals who had just faced a traumatic death or was about to. Frogs had it the hardest. If you have a pretty strong stomach watch the video below. If the embedded link didn't work cut and paste the utube url or try clicking on the link.

We arrived to the seafood section and the floor was flooded, there was an inch of fish water or melted ice from the shrimp. I had on a long dress and sandals. Kim looks over and said, always wear heels so you don't get the gunk on your feet. Now she tells me! I'm doing a balancing act; holding 2 umbrellas, a bag of pork, my dress and tightrope walking over the fish infested floor.

We finally finished with the meats and seafood and headed outside to the vegetables and fruit section. We came across cherry tomatoes and Kim was extremely excited. Thomas loves these, they are perfect and sweet and really hard to come by. She picks one up presses her fingers against them and says, make sure you get firm ones and some softer ones so they last longer. The cherry tomato she has been massaging in her hands has now been covered with raw pork and fish, she looks up at me and says try it Lyna. Holly Crap! I was dumbfounded. I did not want to offend her so I said I love them and bought more than I can eat so that she would not force me taste one.

I think I might stick to the grocery stores like the States, they are overpriced but sometimes it's just worth spending a little bit more.