Catalogue of delights 4

Food. Maharani and I wended our way through push and squeeze pathways in tiny lanes packed with wet market produce. Scrawny live chickens in cages waiting to join their brothers and sisters on the chopping block and then be seen resting with plucked skin in rows. Looking plumper than in real life. Fish of every size. Shiny with splashed water. Trestle tables weighted with these beasts from the sea. Lumps of fresh meat hooked in the air, or layered on tables. Still pink and the flies hadnt yet arrived. On the edges of this market were vendors with all manner of dried fish, some already dyed for purposes unknown. And then there was the tropical fruit stall where I could identify all bar one, It was a mangosteen. The seller squeezed one into two for me. What a wonder of taste. Oh John why didnt we grow one of these at Mackay? Simply wonderful and given freely as a taster.