Postcards from Taboan Market

This was my first time to be inside the Taboan Public Market, the famous pasalubong center of Cebu especially for its dried fish. Before, it was Nong Nardo who I ran to when I needed "bulad" for pasalubong because he has a lot of suki in Taboan.

Anyhow, out or curiosity, I went there and pick up some few pieces for a friend.

CHOICE PARALYSIS was my main problem when I got there. It was rows and rows, and stalls after stalls of dried fish inside and outside of the market.

This was the shop Nong Nardo suggested to me. It must be really popular because it has these framed of celebrity clients hang(sp?) in their shop.

By the way, there are shops there that accept credit cards. Mostly the shops that are located across the Taboan Public Market.

I went more around the market before making any purchase. I always find "Merkado" (public market) to be fascinating. I felt every thing in it is instagram-worthy because there's just so much color, character, life, and that certain kind of smell which smells of no-BS hardwork.

Then I stumbled upon a "painitan" (i dunno if it's the equivalent of a cafe) inside the market. After experiencing the painitan in Dumaguete, I'm getting more curious about our "painitan culture" like hashtag #painitancrawl. :)

The painitan owner also offered me tips on where to and what to around Taboan Public Market.

So protip 1 from the Manang, basically all the dried fish in Taboan are the same. If you want a bit of a lower price, get your dried fish inside the market where the sellers have no stalls. 

Protip 2: Mondays are when the fresh supplies arrived.

So I ended up buying from this shop as referred by the friend of the friend of the Manang painitan. :)

Manang painitan also showed me to where to get some good tableya. 

And as protip from Manang Tableya, legit pure cacao tablea melts so keep them in a cold temperature. :)

So if you don't melt, you're fake. :)