Assorted Dates @ Fish Market Deira

one of the busiest places in dubai – the fish market at shindaga tunnel, deira. been living here for almost 3 years now and this is my FIRST time coming here! usually we go to the karama wet market (click here for my posting on karama wet market), or else we’d happily settled for shopping fish and chicken at lulu, geant or carrefour.

interesting enough, my mom-in-law had been here countless of times. well, everytime she’s here, her anak manja eldest son mr. khairul would definitely bring his mom here to buy stuff he wants her to cook! hihi.

 

 

like any market, the fish market deira offers everything under the sun, like any market does. fruits and vegetables; grocery items and FISH in abundance. even sharks, sadly!

 

men with wheelbarrow waiting for customers who need help

 

all around the market, even from outside, you’ll see men with wheelbarrows offering to help carry what we bought – for a small fee. most people here come over to this huge market to buy in bulks, and it eases the burden when these wheelbarrow-ing men come to help.

 

the man in kurta behind mr. khairul was waiting to gather our ‘catch’ of the day – the fruits, veggies and fish. now waiting for mr. khairul to choose some dates

 

one of the main reasons why we decided to go here instead of our usual shopping haunts was to buy dates. mr. khairul is going back to malaysia soon (JUST HIM on business trip uhuk uhuk) and he wanted to buy a lot of fresh dates as souvenirs.

and there were a LOT of stalls selling all sorts of fresh dates.

the stall-keeper packed the dates in small individual plastic bags before placing everything inside a box, and helped sealed it too, since mr.khairul mentioned he’s taking the dates on a long journey back to malaysia.

 

yums!

 

my favorite is the top left, the most juicy, shiny soft and taste like chocolate! lagi lembik lagi sedap!

 

the owner was so nice, he gave out free dates to khaleef and kahfi

 

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and of course, you’d be a fool to go deira fish market and not buy FISH!

since it was my first time, i was surprised to see the scene inside the big huge warehouse-like market. hundreds of stall-keeper in strapping uniforms stood by their stalls shouting welcoming phrases to invite patrons to buy from their stall.

the smell of fish was pungent. duuh!

 

 

the staff here did not mind being photographed. in fact some stopped and smiled, and a few even cheered. i guess it’s sort of a break from their everyday routine around fishes.

we bought our usual favorites – bawal (pomfret) and a few other fish. (of course my number one favorite fish ever is IKAN KELI! but dubai takde ikan keli… sob sob) we also bought ikan kembung – dah lama tak makan ikan kembung goreng-goreng garing!

i don’t know much about fish – types and the many ways to cook ‘em so i wasn’t able to take full advantage of the endless choices of fish here at the deira fish market. beli yang mana tau je!

 

 

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a lovely mural by the side of the fish market

 

dah lama tak nampak kucing liar macam ni

 

the wheelbarrow man helped to unload the plastic bags into the car while kahfi supervised hihi. thanks man!

the deira fish market opens daily at 7am till 11pm. parking is said to be extremely bad on weekends so brace yourselves. we went at night on a working day, around 9pm plus, and it was not that crowded, and parking was easy. wear old shoes and t-shirts!