To market, to market

Today I got to go to the open air food market in Pekanbaru.  It's called Pasar Bawah - and it is the culmination of all my dreams of an open air market.  There are fruits and vegetables, live chickens, fish, and giant shrimp, pork slaughtered just this morning, chickens, both live and dressed, fresh noodles, flower blossoms, herbs, fresh chili pastes, coconut milk, freshly made tempeh and tofu, and everything else in between. The exotic was interspersed with homely things like golden corn, okra, and a rare and special find, spinach.
As a person who has always wanted to touch and taste as many tropical fruits as possible, its a wonderland. I've always wanted to try jackfruit, durian, and breadfruit, and today I began to see strange and wonderful things to add to that list. There was a small fruit half the size of your fist covered in a hard skin that looks and feels just like snakeskin; thus the name snakefruit.  I did in fact try a piece of jackfruit, those suckers are huge - up to 20 pounds - and it was both gross and good, sweet but with a musky flavor.  Still haven't tried durian.  Have a feeling its like jackfruit only maybe falling a bit more on the gross side. I also bought guava which as yet is disappointing.  It is the white variety and apparently needs more time to ripen, still bland and crunchy. The mangosteens are still high on my list of most delicious and bizarre fruit ever.  Bananas here are so interesting.  There are so many varieties and sizes, and each has a different flavor and texture.  We've found one kind we really like, called Ambol bananas.  They are smaller than your average American variety, staying firm and creamy and sweet.  
I came home with carambola (starfruit),  a new variety of mango, more mangosteens, and (rather expensive) strawberries, tiny brown potatoes, fresh baby corn, lemon basil, curry leaves, and 2 pounds of fresh egg noodles.