Shopping in China

  When I decided to ship our food storage, it was for two reasons.  

1. It represented a significant amount of money and my energy and

 I hated to just leave it all behind.  2. It would be so nice to have a cushion of familiar foods

 as we embarked upon learning the new system of shopping—where to get the foods

 we liked and getting used to unfamiliar things. 

                Since it took four months for our “cushion” to arrive, that purpose was defeated.

 We had to just jump right in and get familiar with local foods.  Still, I'm happy it is here, as

 it provides security—there IS something in the house to eat even if

 I haven’t made it out today to pick up something fresh.

 The vegetable market is a 15-minute walk from our apartment.  You can get all kinds of fresh vegetables, and $4 gets as much as you want to carry home.  I take comfortable shoulder bags to carry purchases home, or occasionally, take the family. There are no prices posted, so you have to rely on what the vendor says the price is, and as westerners, we're definitely targets for overcharging.  That's why we go to the same vendor--if we find out she has overcharged, we won't go back to her, so she seems to have given us good deals, and she always throws in something extra--some parsley or cilantro.   In the same market area are fruit vendors, 

meat vendors, 

and some prepared foods (noodles, flat bread, grilled duck, and so on.)

I've been told that food that has been cooked in oil or is otherwise well

cooked is probably safe to eat from vendors.  

Sorry these pictures look so washed out--the lighting is pretty dark 

and my phone over-compensated.

The raw meat is just laying there on the counter.  Or in the buckets on the floor.

No refrigeration. (This picture was back in August and still hot).

A few weeks ago, when Kevin and Alice went with me to the veggie market

I wanted a chicken for soup.  So we walked to the chicken counter, and I

wish that I had a picture (but I didn't want to offend the vendor).  Several

plucked chickens lay there, with heads and feet still on.  They were

rather scrawny and I wanted a bigger chicken.  So the man

walked over to a burlap bag laying on the concrete floor and took

out a different dead chicken.  "Good enough?" 

About that time, Alice said, "I'm never coming here again!"

We had him take off the head and feet (he can sell those to someone else)

took it home, and boiled it for an hour or two.

Those chickens were probably running around in a yard just a few hours before.

It certainly made tasty chicken noodle soup!