Our class visited Bury market last Friday. That day was St Patrick’s Day. In the market, we saw a café’s poster recommend “St Patrick’s Day’s special, it was “Irish Stew” and “Irish Potatoes boiled Bacon & Cabbage”.
When we arrived at the market entrance, we saw some Hong Kong March booths serving some Hong Kong style food such as milk tea. Then we went to a cafe nearby, I have tried St. Patrick’s Day Special, Irish Stew.
It was St.Patrick’s Day and it was the Hong Kong Food Festival as well.
So ,we could see some people put on different kinds of green headgear to celebrate St.Patrick’s Day.
It was a rainy day and I went to Bury market with my EOSL classmates last Friday. Apart from famous Bury market, which sells seafood, meat and grocery, there was a temporary Hong Kong Market which sold traditional HK snack, such as milk tea, french toast, handcrafts and alike. We all missed Hong Kong food and that was quite delicious.
Bury Market was established in the year 1444. Although it has been facing competition with the retail giants and the challenge of rapidly changing consumer’s shopping behavior for the past over 500 years, it is still World Famous with Market of Year in 2006, 2009, 2012, 2015 and Britain’s Favourite Market in 2019 and 2022.
The scale of the market is very big and consists of 4 sections which are Open Market, Market Hall, Fish & Meat and Market Parade. There are a lot of stalls in each section, they provide diversified products to shop and delicious food services with competitive prices. You must dig out the one you that is your favourite. That may be the reason why a over 500 year old market remains busy and famous.
On 17 Mar 2023, I don’t have enough time to go through all the sections. I had lunch at one of the cafes inside the market and visited a section – Fish & Meat which sold raw seafood, sauced raw chicken meat or pork meat, and a sausage named Black Pudding. That was the first time to know I’d heard of Black Pudding, it is made of pork blood and is popular in Ireland as the stall’s staff said.
I found signs of St Patrick’s Day. There were shamrocks printed on a leaflet which was pasted in front of a food stall in the Market. I found it by accident when I was going to buy some food and coffee. The leaflet was the only one I found in the market on the day.
One of the staff of the food stall said that they hadn’t seen so many customers before. They said sorry for the long waiting time.
At another stall selling black pudding, I overheard the lady before me chatting with the staff. The lady said that it was crowded that day, and the staff replied that they were really busy because so many Hong Kong people came to the market….
There were some temporary stalls had been set up at the centre of the market for selling Hong Kong Street food. Besides our classmates, most people there came from Hong Kong, the stalls were surrounded by people and it became lively and crowded.
I joined the queue and bought some “fish ball” which was one of the Hong Kong famous street food. I shared the “fish ball” with my classmates, everyone was happy with it.
Me and C. were a group, we tried to ask somebody where was the toilet. We approached two ladies to ask them where was the toilet? Because they were tourists, they don’t know where was the toilet, they were helpful and tried to find the toilet for us. Then we told them we know where the toilet was, because we were in an outing for learning English.
So we need to ask some silly questions like where was the toilet, how to get tram stop, etc. At that moment, they laughed and asked what University we are studying. Me and C. embarrassed and told them we are not the students of any university, we are new immigrants come from Hong Kong and get help from the council to take chance to learn English. Then, we chatted for a while and finished happily.
I went to a tea stall run by a Hong Konger and also I bought a box of tea. It was floral-scented tea at a reasonable price. There were also other flavors that Hong Kong people like, such as Pu’er tea and Longjing tea.
We chatted with the owner of the stall and suggested that if he brewed the tea for customers to taste, it should attract more people to buy.
- I have see someone wearing in green hat, green glasses with logo for four leaf plants.
- A handsome guy have recommend many local cafe and suggest me to try the popular food of all day breakfast or fish and chips.
- I have asked an auntie who show me where is the toilet. The Metrolink toilet need to pay 20p for use it.
- The lady recommend the shop named “Card Factory” where have many kind of cards to choose, such as a wonderful place for me.
- He have told me just walking forward and passing the bus station the you can see the tram stop.
- I have seen local couple to try the stall’s food and I also introduce this French toast is very famous fast food in Hong Kong.
Although it was St. Patrick’s Day, I did not see an atmosphere of joy such as parades, music, dancing, drinking and a whole lot of green in Bury Market on Friday morning. It appears that there are not many Irish people living in Bury.
At noon, we were having lunch in a food stall inside the market where we saw a poster with a special food ad relating to St. Patrick’s Day
When I google searched for St. Patrick’s day, I noticed that people are wearing green (the color of shamrock) to celebrate this day.
I’d like to tell you one culture difference between Chinese and British. In China, if people say Peter is not aware that he is wearing a green hat, it means Peter is not aware that his wife is having an affair with another man.
While waiting in the queue, from the chatting of the two customers who were behind me, I learnt what drove them to come to Bury for this Hong Kong market event.
Customer A asked customer B how much it cost for a dish of curry fish balls.
Customer B replied that it was ₤3 for 3 balls.
Customer A said it was expensive. He said it only cost ₤1 for 6 balls in Hong Kong.
Customer B said she knew it, she added that the familiar curry smell made her remember the food stalls in Hong Kong. She further said she wanted to show her support to Hongkongers by actually paying money out of her pocket rather than just giving lip service.
The weather was fine that day, after the enjoyment of the Hong Kong street food, we spent some more time wandering around the rest of the market and did some final shopping then hit the road back to Manchester.