We're out of rambutan, lansonis, and bitter gourd. Must go to market.

My diet is certainly a little different here in the Philippines, than it was in Canada.... We also need some minced coconut and banana leaves, in order to make sticky rice bars.

We're almost out of cooking bananas. That's worse than being out of potatoes. Potatoes are 80 cents a pound while bananas are only 30 cents. Potatoes are an exotic import. Oranges are horribly expensive at 25 cents for a small one that tastes bad. Perfect mangoes are 60 cents a pound.

The most nutritious thing available is moringa which is available for 10 cents a bunch.

Good pork is reasonably cheap and low quality stewing beef is horribly expensive.

Today we are having vegetable soup with lots of moringa along with sticky rice and some of those fruits.
...... this was 4:00 a.m.
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I got to the market at 5:45 a.m. when everything is nice and fresh. It rained last night,  so the awful stench of the market was greatly reduced. I like to go early when there's no traffic and the beggars who usually bother me, have not woken up. I'm usually the only white person there, out of thousands.

 The road was covered in water in a few spots. I always follow directly behind another motorcycle, so that I can see if they drop into a pothole. This is done at two miles per hour.

At this time of the morning there are many people who own restaurants, buying large quantities. They often arive by jeep, which is like a small bus. They leave in heavily loaded motorcycle powered tricycle cabs, with bags of stuff stacked everywhere. Larger eateries often own a small truck or they have everything delivered by truck.

One lady was lucky enough to get two pig heads. Whole refrigerated pigs that are gutted and hairless are deposited on vendor tables after minimal processing by the delivery man. They are often cut into chunks between 50 and 100 lbs. Vendors get to work cutting it up once it arrives , but they don't cut it all up. Most don't have any means of refrigeration, so they cut up what will sell in the next little while and then they cover the rest of the cold carcass with a cloth.
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I got everything we need and was home by 6:30.

Nova is making some tasty treats with the sticky rice and other things. Later in the day, we will deliver small portions to her sister and some friends.

 We are taking some to Weng, our former landlord. She is the best cook that Nova knows, so she's hoping for positive reviews. Weng is like an adopted aunt. The worst that could happen, is that she will give a little bit of advice on how to improve things. Still, she's nervous about it. It's a bit like a presentation for the favorite teacher.
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The sticky rice dish pictured below is partially cooked then rolled in banana leaf and steamed. Most street foods here, give people a piece of plastic to drop on the ground . I like the ones that give a piece of banana leaf or a little bamboo stick.