I have finally found a way onto blogger here. More accurately someone at Heather's office showed me how.
So... China...
We left S.F. on a Monday afternoon and arrived in China on a Wednesday morning, so Tuesday disappeared somewhere over the Pacific. That particular Tuesday happened to be my birthday, so I guess I'm not really 34.
The people at the front desk speak passable English, but so far, they are the only people I've run into who speak any English at all. I haven't started Mandarin classes yet, but I found a school I'm interested in and it looks like there is a class starting the week after next.
There is a shopping mall nearby and across the street from that, there's a grocery store. The malls and grocery are pretty much just like the ones at home, except for some of the horrific smells in the supermarket.
I'm not sure if any of you have ever had a jackfruit. I'm not sure what it's called here, but in Singapore and in India it was called jackfruit. It's a huge fruit that grows on trees. It's about the size of a watermelon. The rind is covered in small dull spikes and the flesh inside is somewhere between a pineapple and an orange only sweeter than both. But the most pronounced feature of the jackfruit is that is smells like absolute and utter shit when it is in season. And it happens to be in season right now. As soon as you walk into the store you can smell what I can only describe as rotting flesh boiled in sugar. It is a rancid smell, but at the same time a very, very sweet smell. You don't have to be anywhere near the produce section to smell it though. It's everywhere. And the locals here seem to go apeshit for it. Scads of people are packed around the jackfruit display, some getting it cut up into sections (which just releases more of the smell) and some taking the whole thing.
As I said before the supermarket is very similar to a Safeway or something back home. It's huge with fluorescent lighting, and dirty tile floors. They have everything from cosmetics to booze. At the ends of some aisles there are girls with little megaphones hawking the latest yogurts or fruit juices. I think the main difference between this market and one in the U.S. would be the butcher. Walking into an area of the store filled with raw meat here is not for the faint of heart. Much like back home the butchers stand behind counters of pre-cut meat. Unlike back home, most of the meat is uncovered, so it is pretty pungent. Behind each counter there are entire animals hung on racks.
Nobody buys the pre-cut stuff. They just ask the butcher for whatever cut they want and he cuts it off one of the carcasses.
1 comment:
Its called durian in the US and it does smell like shit. I have heard the smell likened to rotting human flesh, I haven't smelled rotting human flesh but I believe it. That said, you should try the durian cakes at the peking duck restaurant in the office complex across from the office. They are pretty delicious.
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