Tuesday, June 10, 2008

International Grand Bazaar, Urumqi

A visit to the International Grand Bazaar at the Ethnic Culture Street in Urumqi, XinJiang Province, China :)

Manyak Panjang mia Building... I didn't go up lah cos I was too busy and pre occupied with walking and loitering in the compound, trying out the local delicacies and not forgetting taking photos..

Something that resembles Durian Liulian? Yeah, I saw durian being sold on the street, but didn't ask the price since I'm not buying..

LB's favourite food ~ KFC. Since I tarak suka and don't fancy KFC, hence I didn't bother to go inside the shop :P

Apricots.. and we bought some. Can't remember the price. It is either RMB 3 or RMB 5 per kati.

This is the interesting stuff. Guess what's that big chunk of white stuff? You won't believe me. It's local ICE CREAM !! Walau eh.. And it was left just like that in the open air. RMB 3 per cup.

And this is my favourite Pomegranade drink. RMB 5 or RMB 10 per glass? Lupa liao. Good stuff loh :) And Moz told me that his girl friend use Pomegranate to scrub her skin :P
Yeah, most of the local folks here are Muslim :)

Some of the fruit stuff we bought back that night.. Cherries, Dunno-what-fruit which is sourish in nature and Apricots :P
But this is not my first time eating fresh cherries, since I bought some in Tesco some time back ;)

32 comments:

moz monster said...

Wah ... this looks more like Silk Road. So ... where are the camels bringing in local produce ?

L B said...

You're right. I would have made a B line for that KFC, just to see how pretty the cashiers behind the counters are. Must be very yummy! And rosy. And firm. And succulent. Just like the Fresh Figs...

Chen said...

moz,
There is a camel statue inside the bazaar. The real camel? They are somewhere out there.. Not yet, as the upcoming series are the Balikun Field ~ sheeps, horses, cows etc :P

LB,
LB = KFC until proven otherwise
Hahahhaha..

Now I wonder if the fastfood in KFC in Urumqi is the same as the one served here. Err... do they serve camel burger? LOL

I want fresh figs!!! :(

Kok said...

chev,
the fruit that you don't know is what, I think it's something like rambutan, no? Here, there's wild grown rambutan in Miri which look similar.

Chen said...

kok,
Kok, u meant Pulasan?

Those are not Pulasan. The fruits are small in size, only around 1 cm in diameter. The skin has small, soft spikes and edible. And it's sour :)

Jason Chan said...

still in Urumqi meh?
i would have tried the KFC, see whether it taste the same or not.
go go go, go balikun field!

moz monster said...

Now I suddenly remember the time I had camel balls while flying on Air Egypt ...

rainbow angeles said...

look like lychee liddat...

i thot that one is margarine kkkkk :p

Anonymous said...

WAHH!! so many ocipala food, fruits and drinks!!

yenjai.net said...

The weather is so cold??
The ice cream won't melt?

Trinity said...

wow... interesting! I always love your captures, especially the last pic.. what camera and lens do you use?

the KFC building looks great as well..

the dunno know fruit.. is that lechie?

Anonymous said...

Welcome back doc Chen! :D

so the liulian is quite an ancient fruit also eh? and the ice cream! wahh wont melt ga? like the cherries too! but they look a bit like cherry tomatoes. a bit la.

what a wonderful trip. :)

Chen said...

jason,
now I'm physically back to Malaysia already. Hehehhe..

But... go so far to China to taste KFC?
Must save space to eat other food stuff mah :P

moz,
Hahahha, the camel balls sound very misleading, but i know what is that lah.. :P

Angeles,
looks like lychee from afar but 101% not lychee. Hehehe.. cos we ate lychee since small liao. The whole fruit is edible wan. I took closer shot of the fruit together with the flesh but i didn't post it up here :)

Margarine? Really faint kaw kaw liao..
Walao eh...

Chen said...

ehon,
and those minorities in Urumqi looks like middle east ppl, and they speak CHINESE. Hahaha, it's just like seeing Arab ppl speaking in CHinese :)

Yenjai,
The weather is not that cold, around 20 degree celcius. I can still manage to walk around with just one layer of normal T shirt.

But i'm pretty amazed the ice cream won't melt. I didn't know that was ice cream earlier on till we bought and tasted it :)

trinity,
Canon EOS 350D with sigma zoom lens 18-200 mm.

Is Lechie = Lychee?
Definitely not lychee cos i ate lychee since small already. The whole fruit is edible, including the skin :)

Chen said...

butt,
Thanks Butt :)

Hehehe, i dunno what was that in the picture. Just that it looks like durian. Might be it's just a plant. Hahhaha... But durian was the first thing that came to my mind when i see the cravings :)

The temperature there was around 20 celcius and i'm pretty amazed the ice cream didn't melt. In fact i didn't know that was ice cream early on till we bought a cup and tasted it :)

I ate cherry tomatoes over there too in China, but at different province. I tasted the same as the cherry tomatoes in Cameron.

Anonymous said...

Damn yummy-looking cherries! *drool*

Wyn said...

ha? d ice cream wnt melt mah?i tot is some kind of cheese...hehe...

Doreen said...

Not very hygienic leh leaving ice-cream out in the open air like that. Got people buy meh?

mistipurple said...

i just saw ice cream like that at the national discovery channel 2 nights back. india's hole-in-the-wall shop. only difference is, the ice cream was in the tub, probably half gone maybe.

mistipurple said...

can't get the mental pic of margarine out of my head. the rainbowone lor. aacks.

Chen said...

fibrate,
Err.. u can get those fresh cherries in Tesco too leh :P

wyn,
I didn't know those were ice cream earlier on too till we bought some and tasted it :P

Cos i never expect ice cream to be kept and stored that way. Imagine if we did that in Malaysia..
LOL

doreen,
They left the ice cream that way in every store woh over there in the International Grand Bazaar. Got people buying woh, at least I bought. Hahhaha..

Chen said...

misti,
Wah, u very rajin watching National Discovery Channel woh. I seldom watch tv nowadays, except that sampat ocipala game show etc. I still haven't finish viewing all the photos taken during the Silk Road Tour :P

Piak piak piak your head to get the margarine pict out of your mind.

LOL

Redsponge said...

hep...u dun remember all the prices geh! ;p

muslims place wo? urumqi...hmmmm wu lu mu qi...hmmmm hehehehe

abit like ali baba place ;p

Anonymous said...

I love cherries and those apricot is really nice!!!
And the ice cream is definitely authentic
Heh heh heh
I thought silk road got a lot of silk... looks like a lot of food also

Chen said...

red sponge,
Hahaha, cos it's on the first day mah.. Hence didn't pay much attention to it :P

I dunno why "wu lu mu qi" (乌鲁木齐) ends up as Urumqi in English. Something is missing with the English name leh. Where has the "Papan" or "mu" go? :)

The locals there doesn't look like Chinese at all. They are from different tribes :)

zero impact,
I have few more apricot shots in the following posts. And we even pluck the apricots from tree and ate it there an then in Turpan ;)

That ice cream is really an eye-opening experience to me :)

I only see lotsa sand and stones in Silk Road. Hahhaha.. and not forgetting the Mulberry tree, the staple diet for silk worms ;)

Pink Cotton said...

one question...do they eat pork?
hee...ok dumb question...i guess not...since they r muslims

i just cannot accept chinamen looking like arab and being muslim...too confusing for me

Chen said...

pink Cotton,
Hahha, u also know the answer liao mah :P

Btw, our tour leader in Urumqi told us a story regarding the Chinese Muslim practise in XinJiang province. The non muslim girl who is going to get married into the muslim family will have to drink something yucky. The father in law will go into the kitchen and took the soap water used to wash dishes, asking their future daughter-in-law to drink the soap water. The reason is to cleanse their "dirty" stomach, as they previously eat pork. Many of these girls freak out with the practice and tak jadi kahwin :P

Selba said...

Very interesting.... It doesn't look like China at all... The speak Chinese?

Whoaaaa... drinking soap water? Alamaaaaakkk....

Chen said...

Selba,
yeah, they are speak Chinese since it's in China, in XinJiang Province. It's kinda amusing seeing them speaking in Chinese cos they look exactly like Middle East people :)

That drinking soap water is kinda gross. And those girl who wanna married into the Muslim family besides drinking dirty soap water, they need to change their religion to Islam too :)

Redsponge said...

ok ok...interesting!!!

I Am Sarawakiana said...

wow 30 comments!!

lovely pictures and write up.

One day I must go too....

have a good week ahead.

Chen said...

Sarawakiana,
Thanks Sarawakiana :)
U should visit this place some day in the future. But just that it's tiring as long hours traveling on the bumpy road from one place to another :)