Thanks to the internet, my (and possibly yours) expectation of China was menus consisting of such wonderful things as dog and insects. The reality is that, at least for Shanghai, these foods are not very common. Just like in America, there’s the usuals of chicken, beef, pork, fish, and vegetables.
Cheap
I’ve gotten rather used to the prices here and sure will miss them when I move home. On average I’m spending about $38 a week food shopping and my coworkers say I still pay too much. In America, I’ve come to the realization many years ago that eating out is expensive and for the most part will not be of a similar price to buying the food in the food store. I took this with me to China and would bring my breakfast everyday to work. For about 85 cents I would eat a banana and a breakfast bar. The problem with this is that this meal is both not filling and American. To kill these two problems with one breakfast, I decided to give the street vendor outside the subway a try. For 70 cents, I could get two meat steamed dumplings and a soy milk. I must say that I’m a little embarrassed that it took me two months of work to give these a try because they are amazing. Just goes to show what can happen if you decide to step out of your comfort zone to try new things.
Awesome
So I originally intended to put pictures of awesome food here. Two things happened. First I only took one picture. Second, I cut the English description off. These are supposed to be Blueberry Lay's. I promise I will take more awesome(and weird) pictures on my next adventure to the food store.
Weird
While dog isn’t common, there are some other equally bizarre things that are. The meat section of the food store could be equated to the beyond of Bed, Bath, and Beyond. I've wandered in there a few times on accident to find random animal parts just piled up in their respective open freezers with no plastic covering. I’d like to believe that I’m more adventurous now with new foods but I don’t think that adventurousness will ever drive me to buy meat in China. However, I have motivated myself to try chicken heart and duck blood. I was also tricked into eating cow tongue. Sadly, I believe that my motivation stops somewhat short of foods like this and I did not enjoy them. I’ve failed of my dream to be able to compete with the openness of a garbage disposal to new foods but that’s ok; I’m happy where I am.
