The Wet Market Chicken Stall

"Visit a local market" is an oft heard piece of advice when traveling internationally. It's a great way to take a peek into the daily life a local. For many visitors to Penang's Pulau Tikus Wet Market, also known as "The Rich Wives Market," the tour starts off pleasantly enough. The din of hundreds of customers and vendors echoes through the air, and there are plenty of exotic fruits and vegetables to ooh and ahh over. The fragrant, vividly hued blooms at the flower stall just beg to be photographed. Everyone is having a jolly good time.

Then....they come upon the chicken stall.

A chicken is weighed before being slaughtered.

For anyone who does all their shopping at a grocery store, the chicken stall is an eye-opener. If you're used to getting your chicken out of a refrigerated case on a styrofoam tray neatly wrapped in plastic film, the wet market chicken stall hits you over the head with the reality of how chickens end up on the plate in Penang. This realization left one visitor I was with standing there stunned with her mouth hanging wide open and a look of abject horror in her eyes. (Don't worry. No bloody photos ahead.)

There was something extra tragic about a living, breathing bird being weighed on a scale surrounded by members of his flock who had only recently been bled out and plucked. Did she fathom that she was about to share their fate?

Delivery trucks make their way around Penang daily with cages of live chickens piled high in the back. They drop off the live animals at markets and restaurants around the city. 

Chicken delivery man

Caged chickens

I'll leave it up to your imagination to conjure up what it smelled like next to this truck.

The chickens are slaughtered and processed right before being sold. You can pick out which live chicken you want, and it's weighed feathers and all. Some rare customers prefer a hands-on approach and step into the back to finish off the chicken themselves.

Other customers choose a chicken that's already processed and lying on the table. Nothing is refrigerated, chilled, or even kept on ice. I think that was the biggest culture shock for me. You can point at which pieces you want or select them by hand yourself. If you don't want the head or feet on your whole chicken, just let the chicken man know so he can take them off. You'll still be charged for those parts, though.

Freshly processed chicken

A handy bucket of water sits on the ground for you to swish your fingers around in to rinse off the raw chicken juices. The person who puts your chicken in the bag is also the same one to handle all the money. Here's your change. Don't pay attention to the damp, raw chicken juice on the bills. You get used to it after a while, and it no longer seems strange.

At Pulau Tikus Wet Market, you can purchase black chickens which are said to have great restorative properties when cooked in a Chinese herbal soup. Everything about the chicken is black — the skin, the meat, the organs and even the bones. It's special breed and has nothing to do with what the bird is fed or how it's processed. 

Black chicken

On a parting note, here's a photo of the flock of stray chickens that hung out next to our school parking lot. You read that right... stray chickens.

This post is part of the following link-ups. Check them out for more around-the-world travel inspiration.

• Travel Photo Thursday on Budget Travelers Sandbox
• Weekend Wanderlust on A Brit and a Southerner, A Southern Gypsy, Carmen's Luxury Travel, Justin plus Lauren and Outbound Adventurer
• Sunday Traveler on Chasing the Donkey, Pack Me To..., A Southern Gypsy, The Fairytale Traveler and Ice Cream & Permafrost.