客棧日記 Guesthouse diary - 趕集買菜 Shopping in the market

2014/04//23

那天去牛角寨趕集純粹是旅遊觀光。但其實,在客棧的其中一個主要工作就是要到市場買菜,於是趕集也是工作之一。

元陽景區近年旅館發展得很快,多了很多客棧,但是飯店就很少,所以客人的三餐(除了包車玩足一天外)都是在客棧解決。

叔叔最少每隔一天就會去買菜,當然碰上墟期,菜會特別多,能買到好東西的機率也高一些,所以趕集是重要的工作。

據我們這十天的觀察,買菜最困難的地方就是估計所需的份量,特別現在是淡季,客人不多,但有很多沒有預定的客人。菜如果買得太少怕應付不了沒有預定的客人,有時侯結果是太多吃不完,我們就自己盡量吃掉,最攪笑是我們吃得比客人還豐富,感覺怪怪的。

勝村離多依樹約半小時車程,是我們平日買菜的地方,昨天是勝村的墟期,明顯比平日熱鬧。今天是新街鎮的墟期,新街鎮是元陽的老縣城,可熱鬧了。我們一大早送客人到新街鎮,自己順便去趕集。這邊產品更多樣化,很多東西在勝村買不到的,都得在新街鎮買。比方說,牛奶,面包,餐巾紙之類我們覺得很簡單的東西都要開一個小時的車到新街鎮才能買到。

除了客棧所需的菜和日用品,我還讓店裡的彝族阿姨帶我去買彝族的刺繡用品,讓她教我一下,入鄉隨俗, 繡一個什麼玩一下。

今天買了大包小包的,逛得我都很累,亮在客棧一個人待著,還打電話問我們是不是在外面吃午餐! 哈哈,他電話打得好,剛好讓他上來幫忙拿東西!!

by: Jo

Going to the market at NiuJiaoZhao is a tourist activity.  However, in reality, one of the major tasks at the guesthouse is to do shopping at the market.

Tourism developed rapidly at Yuanyang in the recent years, many new guesthouses opened.  However, there are very few restaurants, so guests usually eat all their meals at the guesthouse.

Uncle Tang goes to the market at least once every other day to buy food, when it is the market day, the market will have a lot more products, and it is a better chance we get good stuff.  This is an important task.

Based on our observation in the last 10 days, the most difficult task is to be able to forecast how much food is required.  This is the low season in Yuanyang now, we do not have many guests.  However, we must stock some food in case that are walk in customers.  If we end up with too much food, we have to eat them, it is very funny sometimes when you see that our meal is so much better than the customers’….

Sheng village is about half an hour from DuoYiShu, where we go shopping most of the time.  Yesterday was a market day at Sheng village and it is busier than a regular day.  Today is the market day at XinJie town (the old main town of Yuanyang) and the market is so filled with people and very lively.  This morning, we take two guests to XinJie town while we also visit the market.  The variety of products here are much better than Sheng village.  E.g. you will not be able to buy bread, milk and even nice paper napkins in Sheng village. Whatever you think is very easy, we have to drive for an hour to get it.

Apart from food and grocery items for the guesthouse, I also asked the helper at the guesthouse, who is from Yi tribe, to take me to the market to buy embroidery supplies so she can teach me to do some local embroidery work.

Today, we shop for a long time, and buy a lot of stuff.  Mat stays at the guesthouse on his own.  He even calls to see if we will have lunch before coming back!  Haha, he calls at the right time, because we are almost home and he can come up to help carry our shopping baskets!

by: Jo