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At first glance, the large grocery stores look much like those in the USA, but, upon closer inspection - there are definitely differences! Leah has enjoyed taking pictures while we're shopping, so I'm just going to post some.
We definitely attract attention when we are shopping, especially Leah. Picture a guy walking through the mall with 6 inch spiked green hair and a multitude of piercings and tattoos - you know the kind of attention he attracts? Well, that's about the amount we get just walking through the store! Only it's surprise and curiosity, and the women often tell Leah how beautiful she is.
Just like at home, you usually encounter the produce department first, I've been able to find enough things I'm used to using that I haven't tried much different yet, except some bright purple sweet potatoes - or so I thought, they didn't cook up like potatoes, so I'm not sure just what they are.
The meat department is VERY different! There is a small amount of prepackaged meat in "Western" cuts. The locals seem to buy the fresh meat more, which is piled loose on tables of ice. Chickens and ducks often are whole, but there are
also plenty of pieces and parts that we don't usually see in the US stores. I bought a pkg of what I thought was cut up beef the other day, but upon cooking it, it wouldn't brown and had a very strange small, so I'm not sure what it was, but it went in the garbage and we had scrambled eggs! There is a large assortment of live seafood, this may be partly because we're so close to the ocean.
The Dairy section isn't very large, but yogurt is big, only it is runny and you get straws with it, so, we drink our yogurt now, I guess it's more like kefir. Frozen section seemed to have a lot of dumplings, fish and there was a row of ice cream and frozen desserts. There wasn't an endless supply of frozen "junk" food like in the states.
Items on shelves - there are some American brands, but you pay much more for them. We looked for some type of cereal for Jim, found about 10 boxes, and there was some instant oatmeal, but not in the nice convenient little envelopes!
I'm still not sure what I'm using to bake with??? It
is supposedly rice flour, but doesn't bake up like what I'm used to. Nobody knew what baking soda and baking powder were, but I was able to get them in the Western store in Suzhou. No such thing as choclate chips, but M & M's are plentiful, so we made M & M cookies.
so, we are eating pretty good, eggs, meat (beef, chicken & pork), veggies and either rice, millet or rice noodles.
I am VERY thankful that there is a good amount of packaging that has at least the name of what it is in English - it's something to go by! I bought a can of tuna the other day - now, at home I'm so picky and always buy white albacore packed in just water- can't do that here! The tuna we got was in some type of brownish gravy, tasted a little strange, we ate it, but weren't thrilled!
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Tenley
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Wow!
Boy my chickens and ducks would NOT want to live in China! It sounds like you guys are doing well. The kids and I enjoy reading your blog :) Miss you!