Meet Me at the Tamu

Another town, another market.

Wet marketing is the best way we know to ground ourselves when we've landed somewhere new (or to re-familiarize ourselves when we're repeat visitors). Marketing is how we get a bead on local products and produce and acquire advance knowledge of what to look for in local eateries. It's total immersion. In Asia, every market - even the ones we've cruised fifty times over - promises to surprise.

Markets are, of course, a place of business. But they're also where news and gossip, conjectures about the weather and the harvest, opinions on local politics and, during festival periods, good wishes and small gifts are exchanged.

Almost every town in the Malaysian state of Sabah holds a tamu (a once-a-week-market). One Sunday last April we chose to skip Kota Kinabalu's famous Sunday market in favor of the Sunday tamu in Kota Belud, a sleepy town about an hour up the state's western coast. After an easy, picturesque drive that cut through forested hills and offered enticing glimpses of cloud-shrouded Mount Kinabalu and a tranquil, impossibly blue South China Sea, we took in an Asian market connoisseur's fantasy: under a canopy of old shade trees, a jumble of outdoor stalls extending on and on, as far as the eye could see.

The tamu seemed, at first glance, a bright, buzzing, hectic mess. As we made our first round of the stalls, however, order emerged. At the front of the market, mostly female vendors peddle their products from permanent corrugated metal-roofed stalls. Cultivated vegetables - lettuces, Chinese greens, carrots and eggplants and green peppers, garlic, onions, ginger, fresh turmeric, and leafy herbs - figure prominently here.

Dried fish too: pristine ikan bilis (dried anchovies),

large fillets of chile-rubbed dried fish that, when sniffed, induce a sneezing fit,

moist, fresh belacan, and bukuk, minute dried shrimp, sold by - among others - a Kuala Lumpur native named Norlinda.

Bukuk, she tells us, are dried in the sun just two or three days. They smell clean and briney, are barely-there but crunchy on the tongue, and are delicious stir-fried with eggpplant.

The markets's front section is also a fine place to pick up a bit of nourishment to eat on the spot - an assortment of kuih, perhaps, like those sold by Norlinda's mother-in-law (below), a petite lady with a wonderful apple doll face,

or wood-grilled chicken wings (a Sabah specialty).

To the market's rear, past the few Bajau (Sabahans originally from the Philippines, and reknowned for their skills as horsemen) offering cattle for sale, a chain link-fenced area houses the non-permanent part of Kota Belud's tamu. Unlike the vendors up front, who rent a specific stall for blocks of time, sellers here pay for their space on the ground, claimed when they arrive, on a week-by-week basis.

Much of the produce sold here is foraged. The ferny pucuk kemuning below, found around wetlands, is blanched and eaten in a salad or with sambal, or added to soups.

Sasad, or yeast beads, are in abundance as well. They're used to ferment rice for the production of lihing, an alcoholic beverage made by non-Muslim Kadazandusun, Sabah's largest indigenous group. In addition to being taken straight, lihing finds its way into Kadazan dishes like gingered chicken soup.

Fresh fish (opening photo) and other products of the sea occupy an area of cement ground directly adjacent to the permanent section of the market. This vendor offers a jaw-dropping variety of dried sea products, including squid, prawns, and fish ranging in size from fingertip-long ikan bilis to foot-long, rainbow-colored parrot fish.

Here, an unidentified type of small fish, filleted

and whole, is preserved with what may be ground pangi nut (buah keluak).

The culinary influence of southern Philippine Muslims, who have settled in Sabah over the last two centuries (the Philippines claims parts of Sabah's territory), might be seen in the tamu's edible seaweeds.

Particularly abundant are clusters of what look like small green grapes. The seaweeds are eaten raw, seasoned with garlic and/or ginger and soured with lime or kalamansi juice, or coconut vinegar (a staple of the Philippine pantry).

Sea products aren't limited to the live (or formerly so); these chunks of sea salt

were offered by a friendly haji (his white headwear marks him as a veteran of the Haj, or Muslim pilgramage to Mecca.)

Kota Belud's tamu can easily occupy a good two to three hours of a Sunday morning. The array of unfamiliar products on sale entice and inevitably draw the lion's share of the photographer's attention, but in the end this market's attraction (and that of all occasional markets) must be attributed, in large part, to the geniality of the vendors themselves. (Many are eager to be photographed but beset by shyness when camera is raised to eye.)

Kota Belud tamu, every Sunday morning. Sabah's largest and, therefore, most touristed. Get there by 7:30am or 8 to enjoy a couple of tour bus-free hours.

Comments

[RST]

Gasp gulp wow

The second pic is of the "edible seaweed" is of the famous ararosip (AKA lato, Caulerpa lentillifera) sometimes also called sea grapes bec of its popping quality. It is most delicious and should be better known outside of the Philippines.

Will get you the ID on the first seaweed in a bit.

[RST]

Those breezy, elegant shelters at the tamu-nothing more than a 4-post frame and a simple covering-are a beautiful example of what is called nomadic architecture in postmodern architecture theory. This is one of the most primeval, one of the most elementary of architectural forms-the bare minimum of physical structure to mark the site of trade and social exchange. The same flimsy, makeshift, easily-dismountable forms could be found in markets from Uzbekistan to West Africa to Belleville in Paris. Although purely functional and often made of cheap or recycled materials (as corrugated iron sheets in this case), these shelters (as well as the mushroom rings of giant umbrellas) form an ensemble that is hardly "anonymous". Primordial paths are reestablished, crossroads are redefined, market hierarchies renewed every time the market is convened. See how people and architectural forms have melded together into that wonderful landscape of old trees...

Really gorgeous and very fascinating pictures!

[alilay]

it is like the talipapa in the philippines especially in my province (southern tagalog region) during marketdays - wednesday people coming from the "barios" bring their fresh produce in the market and they have this make shift stalls of bamboo and tarp. it is also the time to replenish their supply buy fish, clothing etc.

the fish before the seaweed photo looks like baby tilapia.

[Rasa Malaysia]

Yet another beautiful post and stunning pictures of something many people in Malaysia take for granted.

The picture of Norlinda's mother-in-law is one of the best "people" pictures I have seen.

[RST]

Alilay,
I am leaving Chicago next week to travel to Yunnan and the Philippines (specially interested in Bulacan and Pampanga provinces). Are there any small markets like these that I should know about? Robyn and Dave are going to the Philippines in December and I am sure that they will be interested in any info you can give as well.

Richard

[alilay]

i have not been home for five years in fact i am leaving los angeles next saturday to the phils. but i think that every province has this. i know that in my place (Calaca, Batangas) we have it every Wednesday. i wish i could help you, well i will be there for 3 weeks and oct. 24 will be our town fiesta and i want to invite you and at least take you around, the Taal Basilica is next town, old spanish houses,i will give you my contact number you have my e-mail... we are still one of those towns that doesn't have a mcdonalds or jollibee or any fastfood franchisee. i don't now if its good or bad.

[RST]

Alilay,
Thanks! I will make try my best to come by Calaca, Batangas on a Wednesday! Are there any other towns that are worth visiting in that area? I know that Robyn is very interested in bagoong Balayan. Do you know any bagoong maker in that or nearby towns that are worth visiting? Maybe Robyn and Dave can come by for a weekend visit. After all, the airfare Kuala Lumpur-Manila on Cebu Pacific is currently on sale...

Is talipapa the local word for this kind of weekly market? Is there another kind of market (a permanent one for instance) in your town?

Richard
[email protected]

[alilay]

oh yes, the best bagoong balayan is made by the Maglunog family in Balayan the next town, i will ask for their exact address and contact number. my grand-aunt used to make bagoong in large clay jars and man they were stinky but gooood. my mom sent me a bottle one time via new york to l. a. and i am savoring every drop of it.from manila you are going to pass by tagaytay and nasugbu - you could check anton's our awesomeplanet ( check marketman's website for the link) and i think the next major town is balayan, calaca, lemery - their marketday is saturday and its big includes cattle too, and then the taal, old spanish houses, basilica and the miraculous virgin of caysasay, stairs going there .

[alilay]

i will e-mail you from the phils. when i get hold of the address/tel. #

[Robyn]

Everyone, thanks for comments. RST, nice observations re: nomadic market architecture. Got any literature recommendations re: this?

Alilay - oh, I wish I could go to your town's festival. Thanks so much for the bagoong info, we are quite interested as RST noted. And any market recommendations anywhere in PI much appreciated, we will be travelling specifically for markets to PI in Dec. Feel free to email me directly. Cheers!