Vegetable Market

-

















This is where I buy my vegetables. It's not clean, but you can't eat veggies without decontaminating them in some way anyway, so it really doesn't matter. (And 100% organic!  A bit different from Whole Foods or Trader Joe's though.) You can buy produce from the supermarket, but it's 3x as expensive and has to be weighed at a weigh station rather than at checkout like in Western grocery stores. There are no lines, so you have to fight your way to the front, push other's bags of produce out of the way, and get your food weighed by a sullen faced girl who doesn't acknowledge you. It sucks. So I come here instead. This type of market is the most common way to buy vegetables in China.



















Here you can see potatoes, onions, and different kinds of greens for sale. The quality varies depending on the day and what they are able to get. But you can usually get these basics, along with tomatoes, garlic and mushrooms. Sometimes they have radishes, lettuce, broccoli and cauliflower. It's not unusual to see cats wandering around the veggies, but I guess they keep the rats down.




















You can usually buy other things at the market too, like eggs, rice, noodles and spices. Can you spot the kitty?

Comments

Harold said…
love it. reminds me of my mission. had to do the same thing. the open markets, had about everything. meat was not as common, so we loaded up on fruits and stuff.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Mindy Brown said…
You are so BRAVE!!
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Technodoll said…
Yes yes, I spotted da kitty! Are you sure it's not also for sale, um, for stews and stuff?

*shudder*

Keep the stories & pics coming, I'm eating it all up :-)
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Quick Notes

-
I cut my hair today, it now looks like Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction. It took two hours, it was the most meticulous haircut I have ever received. He was amazing. I wish I could take him with me to Chongqing. Tomorrow I move into a hotel with the other volunteers in downtown Chengdu. We have a few days of meetings and then I move to Chongqing on Wednesday. It's about 4 hours away by train. Our new school helps us move, I am crossing my fingers they bring a car or some strong men to help! My suitcases are hella heavy. We had a banquet last night for our host families. The power went out so we ate in the dark, and then we decided to move to a restaurant next door where dinner started all over again. It was a very China evening. I will post pics asap.
Read more

This One Time I Thought I Was Really Hot (But It Was Just The HVAC Talking)

-
Back in San Antonio, my friend Stacey had asked me to pick her up from the airport. It was full summer, and for those of you who haven't been in San Antonio in the summertime, you know that expression 'hot as an oven'? Well, I like to say San Antonio summers are 'hot as downwind from an exhaust pipe.' (Which means when you actually are downwind from an exhaust pipe, things get really unpleasant.) It's quite common for there to be a temperature difference of 35-40 degrees between indoor and outdoor air during a San Antonio summer. True story: I had a small heater at my work desk and turned it on in the summer, not winter, because the air conditioning was on so high in our building I froze to death at my desk. So anyway, I go straight from the gym to the airport to pick up Stacey. It's 10 pm but still around 100 degrees outside. Inside, it's a balmy 60 or so. Gotta give those tourists a false sense of comfort! I'm pacing a bit in the baggage area wa...
Read more

Really?!?? AKA, Cultural Mishaps in China, They Will Happen

-
After judging a speech competition all morning at a school that is not my own, I was asked to hand out the second place prizes. They also asked some other teachers, but I missed the details because they only gave them in Chinese and I didn’t understand everything. I was only supposed to hand out 4 of 12 prizes. But the prize girl kept handing me certificates, so I kept handing them out, while the audience laughed at me. I didn’t know what was going on, so I just kept going until someone stopped me. Later, I was interviewed for the school news, on video, and the girl interviewing me asked me this question: Random Girl: “When you made the mistake and everyone was laughing at you, what did you feel inside?” Really, random girl? Really? On camera you ask me this? Really? Two years ago, this would have devastated me. Now, I just have to laugh and say, “Oh well! Such is life in China.” Cultural mistakes will be made. It happens. For the record, I told her I felt that it is maybe go...
Read more