Thursday, March 19, 2009

Tukang Sayur (Vegetable man) and awards

Me: "Mom, do we still have tomatoes in the fridge?"Mom: "I don't think so. Just wait for the Tukang sayur to pass by and I'll buy some for you."

Everyday, there'll be several Tukang Sayur (men selling vegetables on their charts) passing by our house from the morning until the afternoon. So, here in Jakarta (and I believe also in other cities in Indonesia), if you need vegetables and too lazy to go out to buy at the fresh/wet market or supermarket, you just need to wait in front of your house and there'll be a vegetable man passing by your house with his cart.

What's great of these Vegetable Men beside that you can choose many kind of vegetables on their charts. Well, not only vegetables, but also meats such as fresh fish and chicken. There're also fruits such as oranges, avocados, papayas and bananas. And guess what? The prices are very slighly different to the prices at the fresh/wet market :)


This man is specializing for only selling Morning Glory, also known as water spinach, kangkung or ong-choy.


And now.. time for awards! Recently, I received 2 awards.

First: Mica from Mica Pie tagged me this blog award. If not mistaken this one called Lemonade award. Thank you, Mica!

And now, I'm passing this award to:
1. Cumi & Ciki
2. Mimid3vils3. Nazarina A4. Donna-FFW

Second: Katherine Aucoin from SmokyMountain Cafe passed me this "Friends Award". Thank you, Katherine!
Along with this award comes this message:
"These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated."It also says : "Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award."
I am passing this "Friends award" to:
1. Sam from My Carolina Kitchen2. Mary from One Perfect Bite3. MaryBeth from Dunkin Cooking the Semi-Homemade Way4. Yasmeen from Health Nut
5. Nihal from Turkish Food Passion
6. Monica H from Lick The Bowl Good7. Sapuche from The World Tastes Good8. Donna-FFW from My Tasty Treasures
Have a nice day!

63 comments:

  1. Wow! In Malaysia we can find Tukang Roti only which push the cart around. This is still very old school!

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  2. email2me: Only Tukang Roti? No any other tukangs? :)

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  3. i remember having a tukang sayur in our neighbourhood in the past. they not only sell vege but also meat and fish! it was a highlight of the day, definitely.

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  4. yea, reminds me of those days, the Roti Man, drove his bike and sell roti and other stuffs near our housing area. And also the ice-cream man...

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  5. that cart is SO cool. i love the fresh vegetables!

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  6. nic: ah.. same... same... our tukang sayur also got meat & fish, even tofu and kerupuk :D

    simplegirl: we still having ice cream men with their carts selling traditional ice cream - coconut milk, maybe I'll blog it someday :)

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  7. pearl: Hehehe... fresh vegetables directly from the vegetable man :)

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  8. hahha .. tukang sayur? the vege handyman? :)

    interesting. and congrats on the awards.

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  9. j2kfm: Hehehe.. yup, we called them, Tukang Sayur :)
    Thanks!

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  10. Wa , you are gonna be so famous with all these delicious awards !

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  11. That's still got in my town....
    No they not using push cart
    a bit more advance....
    no not a bicycle...
    either a motorbike...

    they use small pick-up lorry......

    plus the first picture.....
    how you can take a picture in same time you buy some veggie?
    LOLZ......

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  12. I would love a vegetable cart like this to come by my house! How neat! Congrats on your awards.

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  13. You are most welcome for the award!

    I want some tukang sayur to come by my house, how convenient!

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  14. Those are some great looking vegetables!

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  15. I am sure that there are no many Indonesian foodie bloggers in English and getting an award, congratulations. The tukang sayur is certainly handy on a daily basis, not need to travel far and yet you get an array of veges.

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  16. Haha... We used to have tukang sayur, tukang runcit and tukang wantan mee around. But after time passed now we only have tukang roti around only :( sob* really hope to see more of these tukangs around

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  17. i want a vegetable man! that sounds amazing!

    congrats on your awards :)

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  18. That is an impressive array of vegetables on the cart--I wonder how to get a Tukang Sayur to come down my street ;)

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  19. I would love to have people coming by my house on their carts and selling fresh vegetables. Even though there's a big store a few blocks away from my house, sometimes I'm too lazy to go!

    We only have the ice-cream man in his van with the music playing out loud that comes by in the streets. *lol* And that music he plays... damn it! You almost wish you were deaf! :o

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  20. How awesome that you have such colorful and tantalizing carts passing by your house every day. And how awesome that your mom offers to buy what you need from them! :) I used to buy fruit, especially pomello, coconuts, and jackfruit, from carts like this in Vietnam, but I really had to bargain hard to get a decent deal. And thank you for the Friends Award, Selby! I'm honored that you'd think of me.

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  21. I wish we had a veggie cart passing by our house at least once a week. Everything looks so fresh.

    Congrats on your awards, you have a fabulous blog and you deserve them!

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  22. agree w Steven Goh..miss those vendors..but nowadays..guess its expected tat no one will tk up such trade anymore!

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  23. Wow, that cart full of goodies is amazing!!

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  24. Such a tiny cart for so many veggies...Thanks for the friends award It means a great deal to me honey!!!

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  25. Congratulations on the awards.

    Hey, the produce looks so bright and fresh. Makes the stuff in grocery stores look half dead - which it is, in comparison!

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  26. Thank you so much for the award. I really do appreciate it.

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  27. the veggies must be more expensive price wise, isn't it?

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  28. BSG: Hahaha.. thank you.. thank you *blushing*

    pisang goreng: Hahaha… with small pick-up lorry? So it’s much more advance then! Aiyaya, I wasn’t buying veggie, snapped it during my way to the office ;)

    5 star foodie: Thank you, 5 Star Foodie! :)

    mica: Yes, it’s certainly really convenient :)

    little inbox: Hahaha!!! Alamaaaak!

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  29. sara: Yes, they are :)

    jencooks:Thank you so much for your compliments, Jencooks! Yeah, they are very handy :)

    steven goh: Ah, too bad that no more tukangs around, but why? And how come only tukang roti? Btw, what is tukang runcit?

    heather: Hehehe… thanks, Heather :)

    tavolini: Uhmmm… you can send the veggie man a flight ticket - Indonesia to America, and I bet he will come to your place, hahaha… *J/K*

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  30. angele: Hehehe… yeah, me too, very lazy to go to our fresh market which only located one block from my house. Hey… we also have ice-cream man with chart and with the bicycle plus the loud annoying music! :D

    sapuche: My mom loves to do the “shopping” thing, hehehe… Ah true… Vietnam is similar to Indonesia  My pleasure to pass you the Friends award!

    Katherine aucoin: Thank you so much for passing the award to me and you compliments. It's very kind and thoughful of you, Katherine :)

    thenomadgourmand: What a pity… it’s really convenient to have those charts passing by around us :)

    biz319: Yes, you are right, it’s amazing :)

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  31. marybeth: Hehehe… not really tiny actually but yes, it got heap of vegetables on it. Glad to pass the friends award to you :)

    livie: thanks, Livie! Yeah, sometimes in the grocery stores, vegetables are being stored first before they display it but like the veggie man, he got directly from the distributor and must to sell it directly because if not, the veggie will get rotten.

    mary: My pleasure, Mary :)

    foodbin: Very slightly different. Most of the veggies are even got the same price :)

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  32. My Carolina Kitchen said...

    Selby, thank you for the Friends Award. I am very flattered and honored. I shall pass it on with pleasure.

    I am very envious that you live where the vegetable man comes by with his cart. What a wonderful way to learn to eat vegetables as a child.
    A friend of ours from Austria said when she was growing up a man would come by their house each morning with freshly baked breads and sausages.
    I could get spoiled very quickly with your vegetable man or her bread and sausage man.
    Isn't the food world amazing. I learn so much each time I visit your blog.
    Sam

    March 19, 2009 5:12 PM

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  33. my carolina kitchen: It's my pleasure to pass the award to you, Sam :) Yeah, we here in Indonesia are actually very lucky because of these men with their charts whom make our life much more convenient. I guess we are not really awared of it until other people from other countries are saying it :)

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  34. Selba, thank you for the award! You're so sweet.

    Lucky you, when you feel lazy, you don't have to go to the market for vegetable shopping. How does the meat stay fresh though in these carts? Do they have a like a cooloer or small fridge or something? Just curious. I like the selection of vegetables in the cart.

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  35. Hi Selba,
    Thank you so much for making me a recipient of one of your very well deserved awards.
    I remember these fruit and vegetable carts very well when I was younger and lived in South Africa.They would be a big help to you and so much fun selling produce door to door. How I miss those times!!!!
    Alas, here is just too much rules and regulations for even something like this very phenomenon to take off. just wayyyy too much politics in anything you want to do here.Before this produce vendor can even think of making some kind of living to this, he/she would already be broke!!! ha! ha!
    Sorry did not mean to rant!!!

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  36. Thank you so much for these awards, Selby! I am truly honored thatyouthought of me! I will re-award them within a week. Thank you so much!! You made my night! Love the food cart pictures. So awesome!!

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  37. Mediterranean Turkish cook: You are welcome, Nihal :)
    Oh… they don’t have cooler or small fridge, hehehe… It’s still traditional way. Usually, the veggie man will put the meat/fish in a plastic with ice cubes or if not, put them in a box with a lot of crashed ice.

    nazarian a: Mijn genoegen om de toekenning over te gaan :)
    Hehehe, no worries about ranting :D Yeah, I know that most of countries wont allow vendors to sell on streets especially without any licenses.

    donna-ffw: It’s my big pleasure to pass you the awards, Donna :) And so glad that I made you night, hehehe…

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  38. Love this post for old times sake. Still getting them around in smaller towns but on motorized vehicles.

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  39. I need a veggie man to walk down my street! I would LOVE that.

    You lucky girl!

    Thanks for the award. You are so sweet :-)

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  40. Oh, and I love that second picture!

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  41. I love this pictures! Congrats on the awards!

    Cheers and have a nice weekend,

    Rosa

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  42. worldwindows: Thank you, Worldwindows! Sounds that Malaysia is one step more modern than Indonesia, hehehe

    monica h: Hahaha… Should have veggie men in the US! Glad to pass the award and thanks for the compliment :)

    rosa’s yummy yums: Thank you, Rosa! Ayez un week-end agréable :)

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  43. hahahahaa I had experience such during my childhood time, seldom see such now but still available not often. Now they come on bike!

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  44. BBO: Ah.. I see :) Must be more convenient for them using a bike, ya?

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  45. Just like in India, we have vegetable cart vendors too.

    Love Kangkung :)

    Congratulations for all the awards and recognition you continue to receive.

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  46. I wish I had vegetable cart guys outside of my house!! lol.

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  47. In KL, we still can find this Tukang Sayur in those housing estate. Sometimes, my MIL also ordered chicken from him.

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  48. I wish I had a vegetable cart that went by my house - fresh veggies are the best.

    Congrats on your awards!

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  49. Wow! This is very nice! Those vegetables probably are very fresh :). We don't get this quality and direct selling from merchant to customer everyday!

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  50. wow that grocery cart was very neat and organized looking. While visiting in Vietnam I wouldn't dare order anything from the pushing carts, I have such a weak stomach and the presentation was quite clean nor neat looking as what I just saw in the picture, sooo cool.

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  51. Its nice to see the tukang sayur plying the streets. Previously there were a few around our town but now its getting less and less :(

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  52. congrats on the awards! I love love love how you feature common street food like that, and actually take REAL pics of REAL ppl. gives me a taste of the REAL indonesia!

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  53. I love reading your posts and seeing real pictures!

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  54. aww.. tx 4d award.. but dunno if have time to do ler.. the blog posts are piling up and i fear i may drown! hehe..

    the veges look amazingly fresh. i like the way it's stacked up so neatly.. like as if the guy counted out each and every stalk before bundling it! nice!

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  55. America is missing the boat if they want Americans to consumne more of their vegetables. And they look amazing.

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  56. laveena: Thanks, Laveena :) Wow, there are also veggie man in India? That’s great! How do you prepare kangkung dish in India?

    lesley: Hi Lesley, welcome to my blog! Do you think anyone will volunteer to become a veggie man in your area? Hehehe…

    food for tots: That’s great! :) But the ones in KL, they are using pick up or motorbike, right?

    pam: Thanks, Pam! Yup, I agree, fresh veggies are the best :)

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  57. sophie: Thank you, Sophie. Congrats to you too :)

    eattraveleat: Yes, the veggies are very fresh, more fresh than the ones you get in the grocery stores :)

    houstonwok: Hehehe, the stomach actually can get used to it as long as you “train” it :D

    ck lam: Ah… too bad because having tukang sayur around is very convenient :)

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  58. burp and slurp: Thank you so much for you compliments, it really makes my day :)

    jan: Thank you, Jan :)

    cumi & ciki: You are welcome, no worries… I’m just glad to pass it to you :) Yes, the veggies are very fresh coz’ directly distributed.

    helene: Thank you, Helene :)

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  59. claudia: Hi Claudia, thank you for stopping by my blog, please stop by again :)

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  60. Selby, thanks again for the great friendship award. I shared it on my blog today.
    Sam

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  61. my carolina kitchen: You are most welcome :) I'll checking your blog now.

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