Hello everyone! Today I'm going to share some colourful pictures I captured during a trip to the morning market in Cameron Highlands, Pahang, Malaysia. Cameron Highlands is where many vegetables are grown and supplied to other locations within the state and some beyond the borders too including the capital, Kuala Lumpur. The weather here is very cold due to it being a location of a highland and crops and flowers seem to love that kind of weather.
This is the whole picture of the entire market. There are many markets all over Cameron Highlands by the way as many suppliers are from here. This one is a smaller market located in Tanah Rata. It is at the side of the road, hence the parking spots are limited. However, the silver lining is that the customers can park on the opposite side of the road and cross the it to get to the stalls. We did the same thing.
Flowers
The first shop that I went to is the florist. This was not the first one of the row but it is the one that caught my eyes because there were so many beautiful flowers in bright colours. One thing I noticed about Cameron Highlands is that flowers grow pretty much everywhere here. Even random spots on the side of the roads have tons of flowers growing on them.
There were many sunflowers all over the top rows. The colourful flowers are of succulent plants called flaming katy. They come in different, vibrant colours ranging from red to yellow. They make great decorations at home in the garden or yard area. However I think they thrive better in cold weather like how it is here locally.
I did buy the green plant above before and sadly it withered because the weather at home is warm and caused the beautiful plant to dry. It didn't even last a week unfortunately. I didn't keep it in direct sun. I kept it near the window and then moved it indoors. Even then the inevitable took place. I guess we need at least some air conditioner if the weather does not agree.
There were also some roses. Each packed set had about 5 stems with the same amount of flowers. It is such a pleasant gift to give to someone or we can just keep it at home to add a pop of colour. We can also use them as offerings to God during prayers if one has such religious rituals. I guess I would just put them in a little vase with some water poured in it. That way they will last longer.
Fruits and Vegetables
In this shop, they were selling mostly fruits and some sweet potatoes. There were so many types of fruits, both fresh and pickled.
These are pickled guava in the flavour of apples. The colour looks very vibrate unlike regular fruits because some green food colouring is added to them. That surely makes them more interesting and eye-catching but the price however may make people hesitant to buy because I find them to be quite price. Each set comes in 2 fruits and cost RM 15.00, which shocked me.
These are pickled guava with the flavour of strawberries. Similar to the previous pickled fruit, these were also mixed with food colouring, except that it is red instead of green. I didn't buy them but someday I would love to try them.
The fruits on the right are matoa if I'm not mistaken and it is a type of longan. The other fruit is avacado. Now compare the colours with the ones on the left. I guess it's ok to try them but not often due to all the food colourings added.
The same seller was also selling strawberries. Actually many shops in Cameron Highlands sell strawberries because they are plucked here freshly. I asked the seller what's difference between the strawberries. She explained that the white strawberries are sweeter compared to the red ones which can be a little sour.
This is the next shop. Here they were selling both fruits and vegetables. Though I only found non-green vegetables so they lean more towards fruits. They were selling many corn produce. All the three boards in the picture above say the same thing, 'Jagung Mutiara Madu' which are 'Honey Pearl Corns'. They are whitish and kernels look like pearl. They taste sweet too compared to regular corn.
These are some fruits and vegetables packed in little boxes with flat price. There were different types of grapes, cherry tomatoes and some vegetables too. I guess these can be all called as the breakfast set because I love eating them in the morning.
Presenting to you some beautiful, fresh oranges. They looked juicy and so orangey. They were quite big though like a handful and still had the stalks and leaves attached to them unlike the supermarkets.
Here are more strawberries readily packed in boxes. I am not a fan of buying things this way because sometimes the top layer may have the good ones but the bottom parts could be sour. That happened to me during the purchase of strawberries the day before. Some sellers let us test them before buying so when we tried the top fruit, it was sweet. Later after buying it actually had a mix and some were extremely sour. It was like a strawberry roulette game.
On the left are Yacon potatoes. These are special because they are more like fruits and can be consumed raw unlike other types of potatoes. They are free of starch too. These can be juiced or cut up into slices and eaten as snack or in a salad bowl. They are healthier options compared to sweet potatoes as these don't spike the blood sugar up due to low glycemic index. On the right is a large type of orange.
These are some oblong looking cherry tomatoes. If I'm not mistaken they are called grape tomatoes. They have thicker flesh, lower water content and therefore, a longer shelf life compared to the regular cute, round cherry tomatoes. One grape tomato seems to be the size of two cherry tomatoes. I wonder how they taste like as I've never had them before. I rarely ever see them in the grocery store too.
These are some honey sweet potatoes. They are very sweet and soft. The yellow ones are the sweetest while the orange variety are softer. They are great evening snacks but I wouldn't recommend it for someone with diabetes. Maybe one or two are fine but not more unless you are monitoring the levels are home closely.
This is another shop where there were many fruits and vegetables sold. I could not go further due to other customers buying. But I managed to get a picture summarizing the produce and makes a nice wallpaper as it had a beautiful blend of edible vibrant colours.
Here are some beautiful green vegetables which I think must be included in our diet several times a week if not daily. There were many types such as spinach, indian mustard, cabbages, cauliflowers, broccoli, red cabbages and even asparagus which usually isn't available at the regular markets in my place.
These are different types of oranges. They are harvested specially in organic way in MARDI agrotechnology park located in Cameron Highlands. They produce different types of citrus fruits there like buffalo eye, crocodile egg and honey orange which is the one above. It is a place of interest for tourists too to explore hundreds of citrus fruits, strawberries and flowers as well.
These are the Japanese Sweet Potatoes but were grown locally in Cameron Highlands itself. They are called satsumaimo and famous in Japan during the fall season. They have yellow flesh and have no fibre root. The taste is very sweet. They are best eaten after steaming.
This is the shop where we bought some vegetables from. There were people coming and going constantly so I couldn't get a close up. The lady in green sweater is the seller and she was amicable as she also helped to get everything packed well. Seems like it was a family owned business. They had everything we needed for a week of meals. Apart from vegetables, they also had a ton of sweet potatoes in different varieties.
This is the only thing I managed to get. Here's a close up the pearl corn. They look covered but we can ask to check the kernels before purchasing. We can even test them. I did eat some kernels of a milk corn the day before to try them when the seller offered.
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I was almost crying my eyeballs trying to finish this post due to the length. I didn't want to split it into two parts as then they might be too similar. I was determined to finish it before the year ends so here I am. Thank you for dropping by and my advanced Happy New Year wishes to you. Best of luck and may you achieve all your hopes and goals.