A trip to the supermarket

I’ve been meaning to document how mad the supermarkets are here ever since I arrived, and am now finally getting round to it!

Front of the store

This is the local supermarket I go to. Containing everything from shoes and clothes to chicken feet and fresh bamboo. I think the Yonghui Superstore is a large chain here - sort of like Tescos or Sainsbury’s. Now, the first thing to say is I apologise for the few photos I have to offer you; I innocently wacked out my camera when I entered the store and after taking my first photo was immediately told to put it away (in Chinese of course; I didn’t understand the speech though, don’t get too excited, it was the hand gestures). Got something to hide have you China? Or maybe I would have been disturbing the shopping experience of other customers? Who knows... Anyway, with this blog in mind and a strong sense of determination I risked being banned from the store and continued taking photos – as sneakily as I could. One elderly lady saw me papping away and didn’t seem to mind, rather she smiled almost patronisingly as if thinking ‘stupid foreigner’.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to capture the most shocking/fascinating area of the supermarket: the ‘Aquatic Centre’. This is where they have tank after tank with all kinds of fish, turtles, salamanders (I think) and more ready to be collected, weighed and purchased. All still alive of course! OK yes, this seafood is super duper fresh, but I’m just not comfortable seeing my fish suffocate before my eyes thank you very much.

The tea section - they love their tea here
It was after this photo I had to be more stealthy

Some of the trinkets available!
There were loads of pretty, sparkly hair accessories too 

One of my sneaky pictures - general supermarket atmosphere
Damn mother and child in the way

Mushies!

What appears to be sunflower juice and cucumber juice

A small sample of the wacky snacks here -
I think it's tofu?

Weird tea-flavoured jelly - used to cleanse the palette I believe
Pretty tasty actually

Some cooking ingredients - dried mushrooms, tofu, fungus etc.

Individually sold eggs?! Egg-cellent!

More dried cooking ingredients - octopus, fish, sting-ray
I couldn't help but wonder - how do they cook them?

Chicken feet! They sell these EVERYWHERE!
I have yet to try one, and probably never will

So there you have it! The wacky world of Chinese food. Generally I have an ‘if it looks good, eat it’ policy as that’s the only way to get anything done around here. So far that policy hasn’t done me wrong, so I’ll be sticking to it I think! Again, apologies for the lack of an Aquatics photo – I was SO close!

Zàijiàn!

xoxo