Christine made this for our opening ceremony party. Blue powerade, black coca-cola, red strawberry juice, yellow peach juice, green kiwi juice.
The spread, including guacamole, Thai food, spinach dip, salami, cupcakes, brownies, and eight kinds of cheese.
Crisp fried bread with pickled turnips and a fried egg inside.
Bread being made. They sit in oil for a couple minutes on each side.
Toothpicks made of rice.
Fresh watermelon juice.
Cubes of pumpkin cooked in peanut paste.
Tofu in a smooth curry sauce.
Soy bacon, mushrooms, and potatoes in a sizzling hot pot.
Now this is a real grocery store. This is a relatively uncrowded aisle, I think. You should see a Carrefour on a Saturday afternoon.
Most large grocery stores use ramped escalators to move between floors.
Grocery stores tend to have amazing selections of prepared foods, including all of these pickled vegetables and kimchee, ranging from 2-4rmb, or about $.43.
Regular chickens and black chickens, ranging rom 16-25 rmb, or about $3.00.
A sampling of dried meats, packaged like candy.
I stumbled into this strange fancy grocery store that caters to foreigners. I was one of two customers.
Among their wares were these monsters, which I thought were lobster tails, but which turned out to be gigantic shrimp. Only 434rmb, or $63.00.
They sold a huge collection of American canned goods.
Now, most Chinese grocery stores sell some cheese, but this was an astounding selection. The bag of shredded mozzarella is a great value; it's only 110rmb, or $16.00.
Strangest pretzel ever.
Tu dou qiu - deep fried mashed potato balls.
Meant to be dipped in vinegar-soy-chive sauce.
Xiang yu yu - Delicately fried soft white fish, covered with heaps of ginger.
Some kind of amazing chicken cooked with plums, maybe? I have no idea what's going on here, but it's good.
Baby bamboo shoots lightly stir-fried with red and green peppers.
Bo luo fan - sticky sweet pineapple rice.
Mi jiu - sweet rice wine served in a tall bamboo cup.
This dish comes double wrapped in two of the thinnest plastic bags in existence.
Liang pi - Thin white flat noodles tossed with cucumbers, sprouts, hot pepper sauce, vinegar, soy, peanut sauce, and spongy tofu.
This is the noodle maker at work. Only $.43 for a huge serving.
Xiao long bao - very delicious little baozi stuffed with minced pork and chives.
They are sold in sets of 10 from these bamboo steamers. A pricy $.51 for a bagful.
