A visit to the grocery store in China

a variety of canned meats for sale


My mother in law, Pat, likes to go to the grocery store when she goes to a new place. I think this is genius. For a variety of reasons, the grocery store, or food market, provides a window into the everyday lives of people without the mediation of the tourism industry. And this is just as relevant in different parts of US as it is when traveling abroad. For example, consider the following:

• the Ralphs in Hermosa Beach, CA was voted by Playboy magazine as the best grocery store for single people
• the Safeway in Columbus Circle, Washington, DC, was nicknamed the "Soviet Safeway" because it had long lines and nothing on the shelves; this situation was allowed to continue most likely because the store was located in poor section of the city
• in Tucson, AZ, the local Safeway carries a very large selection of Mexican foods and spices as well as La Virgen candle offerings to cater to the local market demands

Anyway, going to the grocery store can give you some good insight into the everyday lives of the people in a particular place.


Here are a few of the highlights of the grocery store here:

seafood flavored chips of all sorts - I think it is mostly just MSG with some powdered squid skin or something.





'korn dorf' multi-cereal mix. of course.






a large variety of 'Pocky' - a cracker dipped in various flavors; mostly chocolate






and, this being China, you also have the knock off 'Pocky' ...'Chocky'








The regular grocery store is very tame compared to the open air 'traditional' market. No one is yelling anyhow. Hope to get some video of the traditional market before we leave.