[Video] – The Tagbilaran Fish & Veggies Market

Out & About Town, Videos

bohol fish marketOne of the things I enjoy doing is taking a browse through the Bohol Fish Market, here in Tagbilaran.  These sort of places are often crowded, hectic, a little stinky from the fish but for some reason I find them interesting.  It’s also the best place to get vegetables, much cheaper than the mall.  Often you can get the veggies already pre-cut and ready for chop suey or stir-fry.  And super cheap too.

The marketplace in Lapu-Lapu is more of a section of town, covering several square blocks.  At the one here in Tagbilaran, Bohol, just across the street from the ICM mall it is more like one large marketplace under a huge, single roof.  Plenty of ventilation though.  Sometimes they have live eels in a bag which I’m guessing keeps them fresh for cooking.  The little creatures I saw, I’m not sure if they were hermit crabs or some other creature, but they were alive also.  I love the fact that garlic is so cheap here.. I love to cook with garlic in just about every meal for the taste and health benefits.

You can get some pretty good deals on shrimp, fish, oysters and even crab and eel if you desire.  Cheaper than the supermarket, just be sure to haggle the first price.  Okra, cabbage, carrots, sprouts, chilis, apples, pineapple, coconut.. so much to choose from!  And many of the vendors have veggies pre-cut, ready to just stir-fry into a tasty meal.  Add some shrimp.. mmm!  The marketplace here closes around 5pm, going in the morning is best time since it’s the cooler part of the day.

So without further ado.. here’s the short video I shot on my first trip to the marketplace here in ‘Tag’.  Enjoy!..

Henry “Reekay” V.
www.lifebeyondthesea.com

 

Author: Reekay V.

Since 2012 I’ve been traveling through various islands of the Philippines as a full-time Expat and spent 1999 living in Vietnam.

Share with me my ongoing adventures of life in the Philippines. Hopefully you find my observations helpful in your own adventures.
— Reekay

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11 comments

  1. Hey Henry, your market video is really fun to watch. In fact it is my favorite. It reminds me of going to market in Vietnam as a kid. Did you notice that tomato and carrot are much tastier than the variety in CA? The tomato and carrot there are of different variety. They are smaller but a lot tastier. The variety of fish there is a lot more than here in CA. I have to go to a fish whole seller in Los Angeles to buy good tasting fish. Many of the good tasting fish here is imported from other country. The ocean here in CA is fish out too. Sadly many of the PI market are replaced by supermarket and mall. Land prices keep going up then outdoor market will start to disappear sooner or later. Have fun and have more market fun trip.

    1. Ha!, thanks! I had fun checking it out. Eventually I’ll start grilling the fish once I get my outdoor ‘dirty kitchen’ the way I want it. I like the prices and convenience of the pre-chopped veggies for stir-fry. I’ve been to the garment and farmer’s market in Los Angeles but not San Pedro. But here, absolutely more variety when it comes to fish and seafood. Shrimp.. mmm. Live eels.. eh, I’ll wait on that. 🙂

      1. Henry what’s Vietnam like to live ? I’ve been in the Philippines for 6 years now getting bored here haha

  2. enjoyed the video and i was pleasantly surprized at how low the prices are. in my virtual shopping i was buying some chopped stir fry veggies and some shrimp. thanks for the shopping trip Henry

    1. The last time I got shrimp (frozen) in CA it was about $8.99 a pound but sometimes on sale for $5.99 if you were lucky. Here it’s about 275P per Kilo. Just doing some ballpark-math.. that’s about $5.50 for 2 pounds.. or $2.75/pound. Except this shrimp is fresh, not frozen.. and much cheaper.

      What I haven’t figured out yet is why I don’t see lobster-houses everywhere here in the PH. I mean.. islands, ocean, coral reefs should equal Lobsters. I’m guessing that even with all the coral reefs, maybe lobster doesn’t live here in the PH. Or maybe they don’t allow harvesting them. (???) In Mexico, along the Frontiera shoreline.. they’re selling lobster all over the place. But here, it’s mostly shrimp, crab, fish, squid and sometimes oysters (I’m not big on oysters or fish). The squid.. I love the Squid Rings.. made just like Onion Rings.. those are so good. 🙂

      1. a young woman we know in surigao city told us her mother sells lobster and we saw pics of it. her brother can cook up a mean lobster meal. i think you should take a jaunt to surigao sometime and we will tell her you are coming and you can have a great fresh lobster meal prepared by her bro

        1. Hmm.. that sounds intriguing. I’ve wondered why I haven’t seen many lobster houses here like they have all over the coast in Mexico. The ‘Rock Lobster’ is kinda scary looking though to me. ha!

  3. Another very nice post Henry. For us Bisayans, we call this ‘tiange’. You’ve probably heard of the word being there in Bohol. Are you taking Cebuano lessons yet? Can you say ‘nindot’? You should be careful and emphasize on the ‘N’, it shouldn’t be ‘H’, a Tagalog will think you said a bad word. lol… As usual, I envy you guys, enjoying life over there.

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