Justin Parke

#MarketFriday 🏪 Gao Ming Trading Company 🐲 Paramaribo, Suriname

It's #MarketFriday again, so @Sreypov and I set off to find a Chinese market with hard-to-find in Suriname items. 🚶‍♂️🛍️

🚛 Gao Ming Trading Company 🚢

#MarketFriday hosted by @dswigle

[Market Friday Community](https://peakd.com/c/hive-196308/created)

CARBON, CARBON

A recent post by @blueeyes8960 had me thinking all about carbon, something that life in the western hemisphere and extreme latitudes seems to produce very much of.

In Cambodia, we took a lot of things for granted, especially all the locally produced fruits, vegetables, and food products.

Considering our life in Suriname is very wasteful compared to our life in Cambodia, we have given up a lot of foods we once used to eat daily, knowing these foods are now imported from the other side of the world and/or not grown in Suriname.

SIN FOR A DAY

Every few months we miss our comfort foods, so we go out looking for imports, usually Indian goods, but today was a Cambodian mission.

Gao Ming Trading Company

[

](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/justinparke/mwAaFPQ3-gao20ming.JPG)^{*Gao Ming Trading Company exterior*}

We walked way too far to get to Gao Ming Trading Company, but hopefully we won't need anything from here for another month or two.

When I noticed it wasn't a brand name supermarket, I became hopeful we might be able to afford a few items inside. We masked up to get ready for an execution-style temperature check and a mandatory spray of alcohol on the hands to be granted entry.

Check Those Prices

[

](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/justinparke/dcze03Cc-produce.JPG)^{*most of the vegetables were typical local things, although overpriced*}

Upon entry my eyes immediately began scanning prices, and although 99% of things were wildly priced, these post-economic downturn prices didn't trigger feelings of rage and violence like the prices at other brand name supermarkets.

Mysterious Products

[

](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/justinparke/S4DVlH09-aisles.JPG)^{*@Sreypov marveling at the things we can't afford*}

The place was impressive even though it looked a bit like a standard oversized Chinese corner shop from the exterior.

[

](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/justinparke/ZOUG5GMv-walking.JPG)^{*unfortunately there were no noodles appropriate for Pad Thai*}

There were many rare and hard-to-find products here, unfortunately few of them had Latin letters of any kind, making ingredient lists a mystery without the use of a smartphone translation app.

We Can Dream

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](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/justinparke/TKdWeg1e-fruit.JPG)^{*not really a Caribbean thing*}

There were many more things we wanted to buy than we were capable of buying, all this due to extreme inflation and our limited pandemic income. If you're actually reading this post, tell me what fruit is shown in the above picture and I'll give you a 1 HIVE tip.

Cashews, We Haven't Forgotten You

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](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/justinparke/e5ic9jru-cashews.JPG)^{*see you again in Cambodia one day cashews*}

Cashews are something @Sreypov and I both used to use in our many of recipes, but they're now an old forgotten friend in Suriname. Here a 1kg bag was being sold for 380 SRD, nearly $32, which is 5 times more than we pay for them in Cambodia.

Don't Tell The @KidSisters

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](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/justinparke/XZNNLBmN-strawberries.JPG)^{*strawberries and blueberries*}

There were even blueberries and strawberries here, nearly $7 for the big tub of strawberries. If Srey-Yuu (@KidSisters) was with us, we would've had to have purchased them. It's her favorite fruit, she even mentioned it in her television interview, so we will have to come back with more money.

More Next-Time Items

^{stinky tofu}	^{dried bean curd skin}
^{preserved banana blossoms}	^{dried lotus seeds}

Well, we certainly were happy to see many items we used to eat in Cambodia available at Gao Ming. We were salivating for some stinky tofu and dried banana blossoms, but we will back for the rest of thes items in the future.

A Few Scores

^{black and white sesame seeds}	^{dried chilies}
^{fennel seeds}	^{whole oolong tea}

@Sreypov had already been here once before because our neighbor took her by car a few weeks ago, but she felt rushed and didn't have enough time to look at all the products. She told me she thought she saw fennel seeds, and she was correct, even at a reasonable price.

We also scored some sesame seeds, oolong tea, and dried chilies, so we will be sharing some recipes very soon that we've been longing to make for months.