October 19th 2018
It's been just over THREE WEEKS that we've been here in China and it's starting to feel like home. Figuring out a constant eating schedule, menu, and grocery/shopping schedule has been extremely hard for some strange subconscious reasons. (Food is our comfort and in a place where its hard to find "normal" foods its been tricky.)
As people who basically just snack all day we've been making trips two or three times a day to the market across the street to buy snacks, vegetables and fruit. We've been spending approximately 400¥ ($50) per day, which was sort of justified the first while as we figured out how and where to shop but now it's becoming a little unnecessary and unhealthy. So we went grocery shopping with the intent to buy the staples that we could make multiple meals out of with out too much preparation...Dad does most of the cooking now.
Also keep in mind that we only have a stove. We're trying not to think about how nice it was to have an oven. Cookies, baked pasta, home made pizza. (ahhh pizza.) Have you ever heard of stove top enchiladas? No. Because that isn't possible. Not that we could find tortillas or Mexican chili peppers anywhere. Well anyway... we are limited in our options.
But we went shopping. The nicer grocery stores with international options (sort of) are in the mall. We caught a bus and enjoyed the twenty minute ride and then a short walk to basically Harmons but half the price and you can sample everything.
The variety of fruits and vegetables is incredible and so much fun. Most of it is better than America's. The mandarin oranges here are insane. As are the mangoes, watermelons, and apples. And of course there's all sorts of new fruits that we've seen occasionally in the US but only got to try once or twice and they were never quite right. Namely dragon fruit, star fruit, lychee, etc.
We shopped like we normally would I guess. Pushing around a (tiny) shopping cart trying to find things we are familiar with. Suddenly a very familiar drum line played over the speakers. Audrey and Paige started dancing to some song by One Direction while everyone stared nonchalantly. I never thought I'd say it but wOw was it comforting to hear that overplayed chorus.
All the produce is BEAUTIFUL, individually wrapped with care. Surprisingly the price is lower than the US even in these fancy grocery stores. If we only ate fruits and vegetables and rice supplemented with a little pork or beef like the natives we could easily be eating on half of our previous grocery bill.
But lo, we love cheese and packaged foods. So we still eat on our normal grocery bill. Here's some classic things that totally shocked us with their price. $1.00 is about ¥7.
Butter is also very expensive, about $5 for one stick. But it's good quality. Peanut butter has been relatively easy to find although it only comes in tiny tubs, which is no big deal just now we have to buy peanut butter every time we go to the grocery store. Weird huh? After stocking up on the Unhealthy American Diet necessities (in significantly smaller than normal quantities) we continue shopping for a few other things.
The aquarium display was charming.
And then it was sad. We thought we were gazing down at a slaughtered army of baby crabs but then Reese tOucHeD one and it moved. That was the most exiting moment of the day by far.
I love this kind of higher end market where things are displayed and sold in their truest whole form. Places like these are hard to come by in land locked, suburban, homogenous, Utah County so the classy gourmet feel is something I can really get behind.
We haven't actually tried hardly any sea food thus far in our journey. But Reese is excited for that time to arrive.
We were on a search for black beans. Random but so important. Canned food is practically nonexistent here which is not at all something we had prepared for mentally or emotionally. I have a slight obsession with canned peaches, and actually now that I think about it canned food is sorta gross but boy is it handy. I did end up finding black beans. But they weren't canned...
That right there folks is vacuum packed, dry (thankfully?), black beans. And behind it is several other types of legumes, rice, and grains. SO COOL! And totally practical. Nicely stackable. Nicely portioned. Just snip the top off dump them into a bowl, soak em' overnight, and them simmer on low for an hour or two. Convenient.
At last we finished with two bags full of semi familiar ingredients. We still however needed some potatoes, pasta, and flour (to hopefully make tortillas someday soon) so we hopped over to another store across the mall.
We have shopped here a couple times. It is more authentic and not so "high end". Basically, there are actually other people shopping with us. It has a nice feel, it's laid out well, and the smells add another layer to one's shopping experience.
Like the other place, things are displayed quite naturally...
Yes, we Americans live a very sheltered life.
All the parts are used. The life of other creatures is respected and the reality of meat being the flesh of a once living animal is not filtered or misguided to be shaped like a dinosaur. While it's a little unnerving passing by a row of dead featherless chickens that are obviously chickens I'm learning to look at it in different light, a healthier and happier perspective. Paige and Dad however are avid vegetarians.
Bread here is NOT bread. Hands down the thing we miss most. It's all got this weird sweet flavor, when you try to spread say peanut butter on it the breadcrumbs stick to the glob of PB and it's just a disappointing mess. Gee I'd do anything for a loaf of good artisan sourdough to make a grilled cheese. Gosh the things we took for granted.
Life is different in lots of small ways. We're liking it more and more here. Tomorrow we have our first lesson with a Chinese teacher. We are SO excited to start learning the language (Dad, Julienne, Reese) and Audrey & Paige don't know as much as we anticipated. More on learning the language in another post. Sending love and joy to you all, eat a grilled cheese sandwich for us and bake something beautiful in those fancy ovens of yours. Keep livin' the largest life you can. ❤
"Please be a traveler, not a tourist. Try new things, meet new people, and look beyond what's right in front of you. Those are the keys to understanding this amazing world we live in." —Andrew Zimmerman