Exploring The Country's Biggest Market With A 6yo

My inquisitive 6yo nephew had just learned in school about fruits and vegetables and how important they are for good health.

When he saw the mangosteen pictures I posted on my facebook, he was fascinated and since then had been pestering me to buy him mangosteens.

I told him I didn't buy those mangosteens (on my facebook), they were the leftover a colleague bought on Friday evening. But had promised him we can scout around Sg. Merah Bazaar fruit stalls later in the afternoon for some mangosteens. So we went but unfortunately, we did not see any there.

Mangosteen, I rarely see the fruit nowadays. On our way out and after he's seen plenty of durian around he started asking if I know that durian is the king of fruits and mangosteen is the queen of fruits and amused me when he said in Mandarin, (translated) if the king of fruits is in season now then the queen of fruits should be 'following from behind', we should have plenty of both fruits side by side each other.

Nope, we didn't find any at Sg. Merah Bazaar this morning. He woke me up this morning just so that we can explore Sg. Merah bazaar fruit stalls for some mangosteens.

We walked from one stall to another. Finally after much contemplating, he decided we buy a watermelon instead.

Interested by variety of different kinds of fruit in one of the fruit stalls at Sg. Merah.

We stopped at one of the stalls where he saw a huge Jackfruit and out of curiosity he asked, is that fruit 'hung mau lieu lian' (soursop)?

We then proceeded on to Sibu's Central Market reputedly the biggest indoor market in Malaysia hoping we would find mangosteen there. We were disappointed after had walked one big round in the market including walking down from the car park's 8th level staircases and didn't get what we initially hoping to get.

Nonetheless walking with a 6yo to the market is something an exiting experience for me. It's interesting on the other hand to be at the central market around this time of the year where seasonal fruits are in season. Where dabai, durian, langsat, rambutan and many other seasonal fruits just filled up one third of the big indoor market. It's a must visit place if you are in Sibu.

We have plenty of 'Sibu Olive', buah dabai or buah kebayau in this time of the year too :)

My nephew thinks these are some kind of fascinating creatures. Sago worms, he was asking if he can have them to keep.

After had explored one third of the biggest market in the country, my nephew insisted we go home. He seemed like didn't really enjoy the crowd that much. At one point when he let go of my hand and walked on few meters away from me, I saw him turned around and found that I was not behind him, he looked scared. He told me later in the car, just now, when I didn't see, I was scared.

We came to the place where we first started and stumbled upon 'engkala'- rare exotic fruit, another one of famous season fruits in Sibu that I've not seen for ages. It took a while for me to decide whether to buy or not as I wasn't sure how to prepare the fruit. Only after, I'd asked the stall vendor and got a little tips from her on how to prepare the fruit that I paid RM3 for 8 engkalas. It's creamy-white and similar to avocado, but softer with a more delicate flavor.

Interestingly, I was told the fruit is prepared by rolling it around a basket, or hitting it with the back of a spoon.