“First we eat, then we do everything else.” -M.F.K. Fisher
I’m sure to write many posts on the experiences of shopping for and eating food here in China. Food is everywhere. Food is available on almost every street corner from vendors selling dumplings and noodles. Food is in grocery stores, it is in malls, it is in farmer’s markets. There is always someplace within half a block of wherever you are in this city to get food. So, the question is not where, but what? The process of finding what is familiar to us is probably the most culture shocking experience we’ve had in this country. Now I didn’t come to China expecting to find the same food experiences and the same options that we have in the United States. However, I probably, in typical fashion, underestimated the challenge. They say experience is the best teacher. So let me share a few of our neighborhood grocery shopping experiences.
Within walking distance of our apartment are several markets. One is what we call the “western store” as it is a very small store in a strip mall that offers familiar items like butter, cream, bread, chips, and cereal. Nice. But expensive. A small box of cereal is $7 and a container of cream is $10. It’s not a place to frequent but is nice to know it’s there when you really just need a bowl of cereal with milk.
Then we have what our family calls the “3 story local”. This market is a fuller sized grocery store divided into three levels each with its own unique experience. The top level has a special section that caters to western tastes. You can find items in there like Cheetos that say “chicken” on them as a flavor. Or you can find frozen deli meats in a container that my translation app calls “boutique sheep towels”. Intermixed with all of this are frozen dumplings of all flavors including squid, seaweed, and other dried fishes. How about picking up a bag of White Jelly Fungus? Might be good. I don’t know.
On the middle level are rows and rows of canned goods and toiletries where you can spend hours trying to determine if something is a body wash or a dish washing liquid. Example: an actual body wash is lemon scented whereas a dish soap can be floral scented. Not that any of this is extremely odd, it’s just that I can’t read anything to determine what it is. Is the person smiling on the package because his dishes are clean or because his body is clean? Right next to both you can find a display of what I believe are beef jerky like beef snacks. Complete with bones. We haven’t tried them.
The lower level is the truly local shopping area. This is where you will find the butchers cutting up the chicken, pork, and fish. You will find rows and rows of rice, and grains, and vegetables. I purchased what I thought was a large bag of black beans here. They look like black beans. But actually they are black soybeans. I realized this once I started cooking them and I saw their green fleshy interior and that they tasted almost like edamame.
There are a couple interesting things to note about the fresh section of grocery stores here in China. When you walk into the meat sections in stores in the United States you feel the fresh chill of refrigeration. In China, you don’t. The meat I believe is fresh and clean but it is not refrigerated like I’m used to. Eggs are sold everywhere. They are in boxes on shelves or in baskets in the aisle. All of them un-refrigerated and unwashed. I was told only the Americans put their eggs in the refrigerator. I’m not sure this is true, but since we do like our eggs in this family, I’m finding a way to make use of what we have. I’ll just put them in my refrigerator when I get home.
Some items are left to purchase fresh and alive. Fish can be found swimming in aquariums and containers ready to be selected fresh. You can find live turtles in plastic boxes ready for purchase and even live bullfrogs. Haven’t purchased those yet either. Fish is on my must do list though. Eventually.
For fresh vegetable and even fresher fish and meat you usually go to what are called the wet markets. This is more like what we know as farmers markets in the United States. Vegetables are brought in daily from surrounding farms. You can get lots of fruits and vegetables for ridiculously inexpensive prices. Identifying some of the vegetables is a challenge as they have a different selection, but I’m more willing to be adventurous with my vegetable purchases at this point than I am with my meat and fish purchases.
We have been told that in Shanghai you can find anything. All cuisines, all foods, everything that you would need. So the food adventure continues!