Visiting Jakarta's wet markets at Tanjung Duren and Mayestik

I reckon by going to these places does transform me into a full-fledged housewife huh? ;p

I started exploring the wet markets about 1 week into my stay here. And seriously, it's a rather fun thing to do. It certainly brought back a lot of childhood memories of going to wet markets with my mom back in my little hometown of Kluang. But most importantly, it's about buying fresh food at cheaper prices. 

To be honest, groceries shopping at air-conditioned hypermarts or supermarkets are pretty much hit-or-miss affairs in Jakarta. Unless you are willing to pay "gwailo" prices, which so far the only decent place is Ranch Market in Pondok Indah. Most of the time it's a MISS because the quality is lacking, rather expensive and limited choices of Asian greens. I recalled one experience of going to Hero in Pondok Indah Mall (and this is a so-called "expat" mall) and man! one glance at their produce and I told Hubs "I lost the inspiration to cook" because not only are they not fresh, the greens looked tired and so limited choices. And the thing I hate most, the branding of "IMPORTED" because that's when the cleaver is out for a fun time in the slaughterhouse. For example, at this same place, IMPORTED celery cost like 3x the price of locally grown celery. Certainly I'm not that dumb to pay that sort of prices. 

For heavy-duty shopping, I tend to go to Pasar Tomang in Tanjung Duren which is in West Jakarta. This is MY favourite market. Although the journey is tad long due to traffic (it takes me about 2 hours to and fro from where we stay) but it's fully equipped and clean. Importantly to Hubs, we can get pork(!) because it is at a Chinese area. BTW not all wet markets here sell pork and this is the only one we know of so far. Occasionally I see frogs and mud crabs being sold as well. Guess it's a matter of time before I buy these and try cooking them at home. ;p

The meats I buy from Tomang can usually last us about 7-10 days and hence for less intensive shopping, I will go to Pasar Mayestik about 3 km away. There's no pork at this market, but one can still buy seafood, local beef, poultry and vegetables. Compared to Tomang, Mayestik is an aged market and ermm.. wet. Well, wet as in the floors are really wet. Currently it's pretty chaotic because there's a construction going on just behind the market for newer and more spaces (I hope!) and it's business as usual still for all the traders here. Pasar Mayestik is also THE place to get fabrics and sewing supplies, including tailoring services as well. One more thing which I noticed at Mayestik is that there are a lot of "willing" porters, offering to carry your groceries for a small fee. If you are perfectly OK to carry the groceries yourself (like me!) then you just gotta be firm and say "Ngak usah iya!" But be prepared that you will be asked at least 3-4 times in one visit. I have not encounter this at all in Tomang.

To give you an inkling of the prices I pay at these markets : whole chicken would cost between Rp 28000 (small) to Rp 33000 (medium), a kilo of prawns sells for Rp 60000 and these small kembung fishes I got it for Rp 12000 if I'm not mistaken.

At Tomang, I only buy fishes and prawns from this Bapak because his is the freshest in the market. If you go on Saturday and Sunday, his stall is the easiest to spot because it IS the busiest with most Ibu(s) and their maids. This garoupa cost me Rp 10000 which made it into that night's dinner as Teochew steam garoupa. Yummers!

Most stalls sell vegetables in prepacked bundles like these which one bundle cost Rp 2000. Three of any kind will cost Rp 5000. Quite a deal actually. Those that are not prepacked will be calculated based on market prices.

So if you are up for a little adventure in traditional Asian markets, do consider visiting any of these. :)