A photogenic bunch of bananas
The market in Pakse in Southern Laos, while not as big as most Asian markets had some really fresh and sweet fruits and great tasting veggies/herbs.
I arrived in Laos just in time to catch the first one and a half weeks of my "favourite fruits season": mangoes, lychees and longans.
Above: Fresh lychees, a most aromatic fruit, with a floral taste. Below: rambutans
HUGE sweet pineapples (though I actually prefer the ones from the Caribbean, which have more complex flavors).
Mangoes with pittaya behind. Oh I cannot tell you how much all this fresh tropical fruit is heaven for a girl from the Caribbean!
I really enjoy Asian food and cooking. The different vegetables here are so tasty and healthy. The Laotians eat a LOT. You won’t believe the large meals quite slim people, including 90 pound women, have. But then, its all fresh and low fat, not smothered in all kinds of fat.
Herbs used in cooking: above lemongrass, galangal, ginger. The tiny white "eggs" are eggplants.
Chilis and yummy pumpkin ( I saved seeds). The yellow marble sized fruits are eggplants.
The purple things are banana flowers and the green vegetable in the foreground is bottle gourd (like a summer squash). I saw seeds for this bottle gourd at http://www.evergreenseeds.com/bogoassh.html
Many people don't know that the luffa sponge is actually a vegetable, delicious when picked young
