Agro Fish Market

One of the biggest landmarks in town is the Agro-Fishery Market. A huge blue-roofed complex a couple minutes from school. I've been looking at it for weeks and finally walked over one morning last week with my friend Peter. Of the two main buildings, one is dedicated to fruit and vegetables and the other to fish. We walked out of the latter a little nauseous and with soggy shoes. Both reminded me of the big market in Florence I visited as a kid with my family. Agro caters to commercial buyers but anyone can walk in and pick up a couple pieces of fruit, or an octopus. I bought some green and red peppers. They went into some very good fajitas.

Dinner That Fights Back

Last week my friends Thomas and Heather took myself and two of the other new teachers out to an elaborate octopus dinner at the local seafood place. Elaborate in diversity and amount, not price (the meal was probably $8 US per person). The main attraction was the octopus, served extremely fresh. The waitress put down the squirming plate minutes after plucking the unlucky creature from its tank. Like chickens octopus, or at least their tentacles, have some fight in them after they're dead. For at least 20 minutes the pieces were moving around and sucking onto the plate so hard we could barely pick one up (see video below). The texture wasn't great but fortunately it didn't taste like much, especially after a generous dunk in the accompanying sauce. The other plates were great...tempura sushi, fish soup, grilled fish, shrimp, and lots of others that I'm forgetting. Felt a little touristy taking pictures in this local restaurant but I don't think I'll be eating octopus again anytime soon.