Let us start with Food. She was almost done deep-frying her prawns, we weren't aware until she gave us the “get lost” look. From the distance, I had thought of how generous she could be, did think of asking her for permission and then only photo some of her food-art, thank her and leave but gave a red card straight on my face and got send away.
Reversed my gear and stopped by the lady with the Crab Pickle. She let me photo her Crab Pickle and so I did with a watery mouth. This Food Section of the Central Market has plenty of side-dishes filled with the ones I dig, the ones I would store if I were prepping for the apocalypse, the pickled ones of cucumber, crabs and lotus.
There, you will witness Roasted Gold, my grandpa's favourite fish roasted until it turns golden. Back in the Khmer Rouge, it was really a gold of its kind. The lives back then, they didn't live but survived, comparing it to now, it is hell and heaven.
Grandpa told me stories, the rarest kind, the ones he lived to tell, in which he fought, survived, worked, lived, kept the family harms away and away from Satan.
The grilled squid followed. The smell of the burn of the skin of the chicken(s), the scent of the mint leaves and the heat in the air from the chilli paste, but I just took pictures of them. I didn't have allowance enough for the squids but watered my watery mouth with sugarcane juice.
Another exhibition of God's art, the Seafood, its tastes and textures, making it one of the world’s most fancied food. The widely known Central Market, seafood is one of the reasons, distributes it all around Phnom Penh. There are schools of fish with their heads popped out of the ice valley shouting “who’s gonna save the world!”. The mussels and oysters look very comfortable as if they know they are worth. The crabs and lobsters, as always, along with their sellers, do bargain in their own ways. All of them somehow make my imagination turned into a kite made out of a Seafood restaurant poster and fly high.
Fruits are next, bright yellow jackfruit, Brazil-Soccer-Team-Jersey patterned bananas, baskets full of tennis ball looking oranges, the rose-red apples, watermelons and their authentic stripes, the cactus-like pinky fruit that made me looked stupid when I asked my mom about it, give the stalls an incredibly colourful Rio-Parade look. The stalls with their hangers, always looked to me like a tree of its kind bearing all of the fruits, all the colours, shapes, sizes, values and tastes.
Captain Jack Sparrow probably collected his Ornaments from the heart of this oyster AKA the stalls at the heart of the market. I am a bit romantic and so I have always imagined myself giving Julia a chain of pearls like the one that Rose had in Titanic, affordable though. I opened my wallet, took a peek... Kek kek! *cough* Sorry Bae, next time, I am 14. Bracelets, rings, earrings, made from precious rocks, jade, diamond, gold, silver, bronze, Julia's likes, I bet, in any ways, they would serve just enough for popping the Big Question, “Will you marry me?”.
So much of the Generation Gap, from Cafe ta-kork AKA Khmer Iced Coffee to Chatime and KOI, from Nom Korng AKA Khmer Donut with melted palm tree sugar to Burger King, spots like the Central is never thought of as a place to hangout. Youths are not going to compare it to the Aeon Mall, two different things, to be honest, I, myself, wouldn’t hangout there. The Youth probably envisions a huge signboard at the Central reading "Visitors and Shoppers Only!”.
Thanks to Louis Chauchon, the awesome French architect who designed the initial blueprint of the market but (hehehe) he could have done better.
Despite the fact that a lot of people were there, and I'm just 14, as an excuse, I wanted to but didn't have the guts to lie on the floor and take an incredible panorama view for you folks.
If I were to put my brain into it for a bit, let’s say you imagine me as the Governor, Wow! The Central Market? Got many things to upgrade.
I would decorate it every time there comes celebrations and occasions and holidays. Parking would be the main project, It’s traffic jam all day long around, probably an underground parking would be awesome, it's not impossible!
I would put on few floors more on top of the centre with an open food court on the rooftop with a garden, a public library cum coffee house on the second floor serving classic Khmer coffee and also showcasing traditional Khmer dances to the visitors…..it would have been magnificanto, wonderfullest, amzingee, etc.
I would install an awesome fountain rite at the center, a small garden cum park around it from where you could sit and enjoy the LIFE, the Central Market holds. And a seating which lets you lie down and take killer pictures of the centre of the market which to me represents the true meaning of the name of the market itself.
And I just realised that it does look like a Big Headed Spider, like the ones in Harry Potter but with only four legs. I would also call it a mini Ben (Big Ben).
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