Week 6: F

City of FOUNTAINS? Rome, Kansas City and Dalian? This fountain in Renmin Square looks like it would be at home on the Plaza.

FOOD: Watching Jim and Pam get married on "The Office" on Hulu and listening to "This American Life" on my iPod, it is sometimes difficult to believe that I am in China....that is, until I walk into the supermarket. A young woman I met here told me that her grandparents spent some time in the US and hated it because there was so little variety in the food available. After wandering the aisles of the supermarket here, I can understand what they are talking about! I only recognize about 30% of the food on sale. Since I can't understand what any of the packaging says, I usually walk around aimlessly and end up leaving the store with some nuts and vegetables. My latest strategy is to follow old men around and pick up what they get. I'm working under the assumption that they are widowers and don't know how to cook.

Last week we went to a supermarket that features a lot of food for Westerners (in fact, we met a French couple standing in front of the butter!). The good news (and the bad news) is that a lot of their packaging was written in English, so I could finally figure out what some of the food was. A sampling:
--tiger skin chicken feet
--albacore fish candy
--pickled pickles
--an entire row dedicated to packaged seaweed
--an entire row labeled "MSG"
--pig lungs
--turtle meat (actually, you can buy live turtles and pigeons in the market near my school)
--meat floss. Meat floss is everywhere. What is meat floss? According to Wikipedia: Rousong is made by stewing cheap cuts of pork in a sweetened soy sauce mixture until individual muscle fibres can be easily teased apart with a fork. This usually happens when the collagen and elastin that normally hold the fibres have been cooked out of the meat. The teased-apart meat is then strained and dried in the oven. After a light drying, the meat is mashed and beaten while being dry cooked in a large wok until it is completely dry. Rousong is used as a topping for many foods. It is also used as filling for various buns and pastries, and as a snack food on its own.

FRUIT: I wasn't expecting all the gorgeous fruit stands around the city. This one is at my bus stop. I especially like the ladies with their persimmon stands.


FISH: [No, Lisa, no pictures of the squid-on-a-stick they sell in most markets.] I went to the aquarium on Saturday. It is the only one in China with a tunnel, so you can walk "under" the water and watch the turtles and sharks swim over you. There was also a UFO (with a TV showing a soccer game from 1994??) and a mermaid. Heavy on entertainment, light on education.