I have lived in Shanghai for 2 weeks and have been to 6 grocery stores. I have purchased things at all but one and am still trying to decide which will be my go-to store. There are some interesting things about grocery stores in China. First, and no different from changing my store at home, things are laid out differently. On the first trip to a new store, it's hard to find what you're looking for. Second, most everything is in Chinese. Well, that complicates things. If that's not enough, a large percentage of dry goods are packaged in bags. Gone is the familiar cylinder of quick oats! Look in one of a handful of aisles of bags for a picture of oatmeal and hope that's what you're getting.
It's not always that uncertain. Many of the stores in our area have an import section. In fact, one of the stores I've visited is all imported. In my first round of trips to these stores, I took the most comfort in that one. It was such a relief to be able to simply recognize what an aisle contained as I walked by!! Between this store and the import sections of the others, we can find a lot of the things we used at home (maybe a new brand), but they come at a price. Most imported items are 2-3 times the price of the product at home. Gone are the days of tracking the sales at Kroger!
I have no idea what my local vs. imported food use ratio will wind up being, but it's been nice to know I can lean on the imports when I'm unsure about a local product. At least we can know what we're eating while we transition to a new country/culture/cuisine. Hopefully I can sit back soon, comfortable in my choice of my main grocery store. According to my driver, I have a few more to visit!
The first few weeks of shopping and cooking in a new country are always so overwhelming to me. It's like I have to learn how to do it all over again. The funny thing is, that when you go back to the States to live, you will experience the same thing! I am enjoying reading about your adventures, Beth. I hope you will begin to feel at home there soon! -- Laura
ReplyDeleteLooks like you are getting a running tour of the grocery stores!! Boy.. getting food items that are recognizable is important!! Glad you have run into import sections to help those items lost in translation! ha
ReplyDeleteI went to Japan for Lets Start Talking and our grocery store had a lot of imports but we bought a lot of Japanese brands too. The funniest thing was buying meat. We wanted to get ground beef but ended up with ground pork a couple of times. We just had to look up the words in Japanese and we finally figured it out. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteYep! Your experiences are typical for shopping in a "foreign" country. It will be interesting to see whether you pick up the local tastes for food. As my guide said in Beijing as we were going to his "local" restaurant " We eat anything, what do you want". The local markets in China are really interesting to a Westerner. I am really going to enjoy reading your blog. By the way, I still don't know what the job there is. Can you enlighten us?
ReplyDeleteAre the kids in school? What do they think of their new school? Aren't there other English speaking stay at home Mom's around you can get help from? Maybe Matt can find someone at work who has a wife to help you. Must be difficult but also a new and different adventure. Do they have open markets where they sell fish and other items? Did you hire your cleaning/cook yet? So good to read your blog.
ReplyDeleteGreat blog, B. I remember that my kids were fussy eaters. I can't imaging not being able to find franks & beans or Mac & cheese for little ones. You have a driver?! 8-) Best of luck to you. pcarter
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