Every sack lined up in the store was filled with dried fish

Pile of dried fish — Dried fish sold in Bago

Eating seafood is also common in Myanmar, and no matter which market you visit, you will find stores selling seafood. Myanmar is a country that consumes a lot of seafood. At a market built along the Bago River, there were a number of stores selling fish. Of course, not only raw fish, but also processed fish and shellfish are sold.

In such a market, the next thing that caught my eye after the traditional fermented fish food was dried fish. A small bag of dried fish was placed in front of a store. I am not sure what kind of fish it was, or if it was a common fish in Japan. Either way, the fish was dried to a crisp. At first glance, the small dried fish looked like dried crackers. Unlike the fermented food known as gapi, which was sludgy, the dried fish here looked a bit tasty.

Looking at the dried food in the store, I realized once again that whether or not people think food looks good depends on the environment in which they grew up. If I had been born and raised in Myanmar, the sight of soggy gapi would probably whet my appetite.

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