Everyday Food Life of a New Beijing Expat

or the Daily Food Trials of a Trailing Spouse

Simple living takes longer here in Beijing than anywhere else I've lived.  It’s a fact.  Just putting food on the table can take days.  Perhaps I should qualify that statement:  putting Western food on the table can take days.  It takes days to track down all of the ingredients, but of course I’m starting with an empty pantry.   After three weeks of foraging for food, I finally feel I can get out and do something that doesn't involve securing food.  I've been to more than a dozen different markets since living here. I really don't remember filling my larder being this difficult the last time we lived here.  Maybe age has dimmed the memories; but of course back then we had a driver!

Suffice it to say that since I’ve found the best Jenny Lou’s Market in the surrounding districts, I'm one happy camper: one who is willing to pay a few RMB for that imported bag of grits!  Staples like peanut butter and sweet pickle relish are more precious than gold here, and then there are items like molasses that are rarer than hen’s teeth.  Oh, who needs molasses to make BBQ anyway?  Tom and I are still having trouble finding and identifying soy milk and low fat milk, but I think I'll be okay at the “best Jenny Lou’s”.  I have an app on my phone that reads the Chinese and translates into English which helps me to do the marketing.

Tomorrow I'll take the shuttle bus from the apartment to Carrefour, which is a French hypermarket  or as I have dubbed it, the Zoo.  The Zoo moniker because of the sheer number of shoppers, the noisy company girls shouting into microphones at every isle, and the 20-30 minute long checkout lines.  But, since I need to buy pop and beer for our first round of company, I need the bus to help me haul it home. Otherwise I'd be buying 6 cans here and 6 can there for the next many days.  Did I mention simple living takes a long time here in Beijing?  On a funny note, I traded my faithful Volvo wagon for a two wheeled shopping trolley or a “granny cart”.  I haven't taken it on the subway yet as I don't want to walk a cart full of groceries up and down the subway stairs.

Yesterday Tom and I walked from church to San Yuan Li or the wet market to buy produce.  It takes me a subway transfer and a walk to get here on my own, but no worries for this girl who likes to cook and needs the walk.  The market is a block long narrow building with individual stalls on each side.  These savvy merchants know their clientele and can identify their goods in English and for now are putting up with my non-existent Chinese.   I LOVE this market.  Items within range from fruits to rice with eggs, dairy, meat, seafood, vegetables, fresh herbs, wine, cheese, imported canned items and kitchen utensils in between.  I spent $10 USD on potatoes, spring onions, summer squash, carrots, bell peppers, onions, lemons, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, parsley, cilantro, basil, and rosemary.  I know I couldn't have done so well even at the “best Jenny Lou’s” and certainly not at home. 

The food saga doesn't end at the checkout counter, however.  Once home everything really needs to be triple washed.  Yesterday, this took all afternoon to pre-rinse out the dirt, wash, rinse, dry and then store.  Using the Clorox wash procedure I learned from my mother-in-law in the early ‘80’s, I wash everything from eggs to produce, including mushrooms, and meats.  Once stored my produce lasts a long time.  When I'm ready to use foods that can be peeled, I peel, even if I wouldn't peel at home.  Again, living takes a little longer here.

The interesting part to me is that I use almost everything I purchase.  I throw away very little.   I think since I work hard to obtain food, I don’t take it for granted; there is no such thing as a quick run to Schnuck’s, or even going into my garden to cut that recipe finishing bit of chives.

Check out Tom's photo blog link to the San Yuan Li market -->  San Yuan Li