Market Shopping

I've finally been to the traditional Chinese market near my house! It wasn't that far, but it's just one of those situations where if you don't even know what you're looking for, you just can't see it no matter how hard you try. Teresa took me - I highly recommend making friends with the locals the nanosecond you arrive in a foreign country.

Anyway, it was awesome! All sorts of fresh vegetables, in delicious contrast to what you can buy in the supermarkets, (without exception, everything is shrink-wrapped in plastic, and often rotten.) all kinds of weird Chinese treats (more of that pesky red bean stuff! I'm not a fan.) and the occasional stall selling live chickens. I wasn't that keen on those stalls- especially as the chickens were huddled in filthy cages with chopping boards on top of them displaying freshly butchered chicken chunks. So I took a picture of a big bag of mushrooms instead. Here 'tis.




Yeah, they thought I was nuts but I don't care. I'm western - I'm supposed to be nuts.

I bought a snack - spicy fried rice served in a plastic bag (!) but I didn't even think it was that strange, after I saw a guy selling fresh coconut milk. He got out this huge cleaver thing, swiped the top off the coconut, and poured the milk into a plastic bag. One quick bag tie and a straw, and you're ready to go. I wonder if those bags are ultimately better for the environment than a wax lined cup?

After I purchased my modest groceries (2 potatoes 1 ear of corn and 1 bunch of asparagus) we walked back through Dong Hu. Teresa showed me where to buy bread without sugar in it (Chinese people don't really do bread like we do - it's mostly more of a dessert.) and then I went to one of the billions of shops that sell nothing but beauty and hygiene products. Where I saw these...



Awesome. And you thought there were no stonker donkers in Asia!