Produce Shopping in Sri Lanka

Here, we’ve got a few produce shops.

See all the bananas hanging there? Most shops here store their bananas that way – more efficient – then will cut off a hand as a customer selects it. The bananas still on the stem is the way plantations sell their bananas to the middle men. When my mother-in-law sells bananas from her garden, she sells the entire thing like you see here.

Inside the shop, there’s more produce for sale.

Now, here’s something I don’t see very often. Bananas sold at the side of the road, out of boxes and on a table, all hands off the stem. Really not common.

At grocery stores like Arpico, Keell’s, Cargills, or Food City, bananas are sold off the stem by the hand, and I’ve seen a few shops that sell bananas by the hand off the stem as well, but not usually at the side of the road. Go figure.

He also has some local oranges for sale by the looks of things. Those greenish-orangish globes of citrus fruit? Yep, those are local oranges.

Things that are sold out of trucks or from makeshift stalls or tables set up on the side of the road? Just about everything. Water buffalo curd. Treacle and jaggery. Papaya, mangoes, mangosteen, rambutan, guava, oranges. Cashews. Pineapple. Thambili (king coconut).

Really, just about anything.

Tags: produce, bananas, shops, stalls, Sri Lanka