To Market To Market

Picture me standing with my grocery bags on the double yellow lines. This is where I cross when I am too lazy to walk up and down the 146 steps.over the street! I don't do thisoften since a lady told me she witnessed a fatality here.

Some glimpses into our pantry in Shenzhen.

Some snack foods from Sams and WalMart.

A tiny fraction of the special "Moon Cakes" for sale EVERYWHERE in China as people prepare to eat these for the Moon (or Autumn) Festival. Ladies in special costumes stand nearby and accompany you to the register if you buy some.

More snacks from Sam's. We thought the bag on the left might be like Cheetos - it was not. The big jar is oats.

All of the rice here is sold in JUMBO quntities. This is the smallest bag I could find. Elly was struggling to hold it up and I had removed a large canister amount of it already. I try to store all grains in the freezer to kill/prevent (you guessed it!) bugs.

These are quail eggs. they are a little bigger than a malted milk easter egg. Very cute and taste great hard-boiled.

Hmmm.....Is it "The Real Thing"?

Ellysa and I outside our local general goods and groceries store. This place carries mostly Chinese items and a few imports. Two import stores are right next door and carry lots of the other items we normally cook with, eg: chocolate chips and pancake syrup!

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As I have said before, shopping in Shenzhen is always an experience. Compared to the first couple weeks of living here, I can now (usually) focus on the task of fulfilling my shopping list as opposed to being awestruck by the sights, sounds, and smells. Of course, the other day when a fish jumped out of captivity and onto the floor near our cart, Elly and I were a little distracted. And then we got mesmerized watching the frogs in their adjacent tanks, wondering how high they could jump. But the eels in this particular little market were just baby-sized - not nearly as impressive as the several feet long ones at Sam's or WalMart.

Other things, I have learned to NOT study too closely. The poultry, which is most often sold whole, always includes the head, tucked neatly beside the wing so you can look it in the eye. Then there are the trays of organs and innards which I give a blink and a swallow to and hurry on past. In the produce section, I am mostly frustrated that I can only recognize about 25% of what is sold. Even the stores that have taken the time to translate the label to english limit the effort to "Green Vegetable" (how dull do they think we foreigners are?) Plus, I get thrown off by even some of the familiar items - like the "green vegetable" that looks exectly like a green bean but is about 18 inches long. I'm thinking "Blue Ribbon" at the fair but wondering how long do you cook those things?

The packaged items are usually a little easier to navigate. If they are Chinese versions of well-known brands, there will be enough of the logo to make the item seem "normal". Even if Tony the Tiger has a thought bubble written in Chinese, I know he's saying they're "TERRRRific!" This commercial used to annoy me. Now I am happy to glance at Tony grinning at me as he slides around in my cart. I am trying to buy fewer of such import items. In part, because I can't justify the price; in part because I know we need to try other foods. I wrestle with the quality fears and try not to dwell on the tainted milk headlines that were so sad (I do still buy imported milk.) The girls have found some lunch snack items they enjoy. We're not sure of the contents or nutritional value but we're trying not to be too paranoid. Elly discovered some seaweed packets that she first had from an Asian import store in Knoxville. She would eat these salty, fishy things every day..... but Emily won't let her. (She, not Mommy, is the Nutrition Nazi of the house if the truth be known.)

Today, I remembered to have every item of produce weighed at WalMart - before I got to the final check-out! And I had enough of my own bags with me to hold everything! I didn't count out small change but, having recently mastered the many versions of coins which can add up to a Yuan, I could have done it! I then navigated myself to the nearest "travelator" (a label which seems to fit the moving sidewalk that takes you between levels at many malls and parking areas here) and found the "car park". I was grateful to NOT be on foot as the weight of my bags might have caused me to take shortcuts on the streets. I have written about the road hazards here, and I respect them greatly, but sometimes my tired arms and shoulders get the better of me. At such times, I find myself standing on the yellow lines as buses whiz by in front of me and behind me. Crossing Kingston Pike, at rush hour, between the North and South Campuses of Cokesbury UMC doesn't even seem risky to me anymore.

I hope this gives a better picture of some of the "day to day". I'll try to take my camera out more in the days ahead. I will begin a weekly Mandarin class next week. I'm also signed up for a class to learn how to make prawn dumplings. I cannot bring myself to buy the live shrimp just yet - I can't envision how you kill them before consumption - so our version will get made from the frozen shrimp I have purchased at the grocery. Tell the folks at Kroger "hello"!

(Lest you feel too much sympathy for all of the food adjustments we've made, let me confess that the new Dunkin Donuts opened a few blocks away this morning. Buy 5 get one free - we'll be there this weekend! They are located a few doors away from Starbucks, not far from the TCBY and across from McDonalds!)