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Yangon Shopping
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An evening bazaar, I live in one of the
city's most populated neighborhoods. Right across
the street from my apartment is an evening bazaar.
Opened along the sidewalk of a busy street, it is a
typical makeshift bazaar. As its name suggests, it
sells food supposed to be easily cooked for dinner
like meat, fish and vegetables.
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A mall
is always a very busy place, people come, buy something and dash
off. It is, though, congested, with some people spilling over the nearby street.
Unlike
people who are roaming the market, they are
coming with every intention of buying. They hardly
leave empty handed. This perhaps accounts for its
steady growth; over the
past few years.
Three
categories of buyers
The
first is for those on their way home from
work; the second for the housewives making a
dash to the bazaar before their husband and
children come home from work and school,
say, on an empty stomach and the third for
the househusbands who do household chores in
the place of
housewives. Anyhow in my opinion it looks as
if it was making all of the categories
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addicted, so to speak. I apologize if they feel
offended at what I say. However, I fully know their
feeling because I belong to the third category. I am
a househusband who is obsessive about shopping
there. |
There are two major interesting
shopping area
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one is
the
Bogyoke Market
and the other is along
Anawrahta Road which is somehow the
5.th Avenue of Myanmar.
Plenty
of interesting stuff is also going
on in the side street which form
different quarters just like in
India, the Middle Age in Europe or
Sukhumvit Road in Bangkok.
A
extensive urban trek along
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Anawrahta Road
should be visited, that's where the "City
Beat" runs high. Along the
street is a virtual mirror what's going on in
the city. There is the flower market
at 38th street with great tempered
flowers from Shan State such as
Lilies and other. There are
tasty bananas sold at the
street front, all kind of electronics,
cameras and gadgets, cheap
opticians who know |
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their business,
plenty of picture
developer, street
food, dress shops,
supermarkets, betel
shops, instant shoes
repair, tailors, book
shops etc. |
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Anawrahta
Road Yangon
Street Food |
Sule Pagoda |
Myanmar Monk |
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Yangon Fast
Food |
Yangon
Street Food |
Anawrahta Road
more |
Vulnerability
to being cheated
At first, going to
bazaar turned out to be a daunting task but, now, I
can manage to cope with it. For example, I
effortlessly haggle over price while I am casting a
glance at the freshest vegetables or the weighing
balance, otherwise I would be vulnerable to being
cheated at freshness or weight. Rain or shine, like
other shoppers, I force my way through the crowd
along the shop-lined sidewalk. At the time, the
sellers are touting their goods in a scrambling
manner. But, frankly speaking, I don't see the thing
I am looking at and/or I don't hear anything at all
no matter how close a vendor's voice comes. I am
often preoccupied then. In other words, I am
overwhelmed by the feeling of being a househusband.
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Being
a househusband
My career cut short so I
was out of work. My wife became a breadwinner.
Sooner or later did our errands girl leave our
family. We are a family which is as small as three
'comprising I, my wife and our daughter. Our
daughter is lending her mother a helping hand. So I
had to replace the errands girl first and then to
become a full-fledged househusband. I am
middle-aged. I live at the third floor of a walk-up
(a tall building without lift). So for me the
proximity of the bazaar is offset, I arrive home
from the bazaar puffing and panting. But I do not
take a short pause. Instead I go straight to the
kitchen. Cooking is the next thing I have to do by
myself. A determined effort to cook the best
possible dish would gradually ease my tiredness. |
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Nothing
beats my wife's cooking
I never think of cooking
as a women's task. But, like most of husbands, I was
never in the kitchen before my career cut short, let
alone cooked a single dish. In contrast, now I know
how to cook a number of dishes, although our
daughter dubs many "bland dish." If a dish tastes
good, she gives me a thumb-up. But it isn't easy to
happen. By the way, my family is fairly finicky
about food. Luckily enough, my wife is a good cook.
I and our daughter are never fed up with what she
cooks but it has more effect on our daughter. Our
daughter dogmatically holds that "nothing beats her
mother 's cooking". Our daughter hardly ever gives
credit to other people's cooking. Even a thumb-up to
me doesn't mean credit either but merely a
no-objection signal. Anyhow when I am given such
thumb-up the whole tiredness falls away.
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No
guarantees for good flavor
I think there
are only a few recipes for Yangon typical
food. You would pour a small amount of
cooking oil into a wok first and then put
minced or crushed onion and garlic when oil
comes to the boil. This is the first step
for almost every dish. Then, stir until
onion and garlic are well done. The next
thing is to put
primary food like fish, meat or vegetable.
Whatever good recipes and ingredients are
used, a dish should be tasteful. So, a cook
should guarantees for good flavor. But I am
a cook who gives no such guarantees.
Instead, I am cooking dishes |
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Thankless
job
As a
househusband, I have to do what errands girl
did and what my wife did combined, involving
running errands, cooking, washing and
cleaning. At the end of the day, my daily
routine is not finished but the time runs
out and I get exhausted, while being anxious
about whether the dishes I paired for dinner
today and for lunch tomorrow satisfy my wife
and daughter or are appetizing to them.
Household chores are more laborious than
they seem to be. Many things are left undone
and many more are to come. Nevertheless
nobody says thank you. My wife and daughter
seem to take me for granted. Only then do I
realize why our ancestors called it
thankless j ob. Or I could grasp the point
that family is the thing which always comes
first in the thankless jobbers' lives,
Story by Saw Lya
more shopping |
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