Fodor's Expert Review Victoria Street Market
Masses of enormous fish and prawns lie tightly packed on beds of ice while vendors competing for your attention shout their respective prices. In the meat section, goat and sheep heads are stacked into neat piles (a spectacle for those with iron stomachs), and butchers slice and dice every cut of meat imaginable. The noise is deafening. In an adjacent building—where all the tour buses pull up—you'll discover a number of curio shops whose proprietors are willing to bargain over wood and stone carvings, beadwork, and basketry. You'll also find shops selling spices with creative names like Mother-in-Law's Revenge and Exterminator, recordings of African music, and Indian fabrics. The current structures stand on the site of an original, much-loved market, a ramshackle collection of wooden shacks that burned down during the years of Nationalist rule. Go with a guide and make a visit to Joe's Corner shop or to the Thirupathi Spices Shop where Sanusha... READ MORE
Masses of enormous fish and prawns lie tightly packed on beds of ice while vendors competing for your attention shout their respective prices. In the meat section, goat and sheep heads are stacked into neat piles (a spectacle for those with iron stomachs), and butchers slice and dice every cut of meat imaginable. The noise is deafening. In an adjacent building—where all the tour buses pull up—you'll discover a number of curio shops whose proprietors are willing to bargain over wood and stone carvings, beadwork, and basketry. You'll also find shops selling spices with creative names like Mother-in-Law's Revenge and Exterminator, recordings of African music, and Indian fabrics. The current structures stand on the site of an original, much-loved market, a ramshackle collection of wooden shacks that burned down during the years of Nationalist rule. Go with a guide and make a visit to Joe's Corner shop or to the Thirupathi Spices Shop where Sanusha Moodliar, the shop's charismatic heir, will prepare you the freshest spice packs to take home (as she did for Gordon Ramsay). It's not cheap, but it's worth it.
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