Sunday, June 3rd 2012

Mom woke me up at around 5:15 am. Once again, I folded my bed, brushed my teeth and got ready to go out. This time, my aunt led the way. We left the house and took a back street to go see if a small breakfast place nearby had anything good to eat. After checking it out, we decided to take a bus (#110) to a market place that only opens in the mornings. Upon walking a couple of minutes from the bus stop, we passed through a huge warehouse-like structure which contained countless tables full of produce and other goods. It was still early, so many people were still laying out their supplies.

We left through the back of the warehouse which led to a small playground connecting to a small alley. The alley opens up as a small outdoor space where vendors and prepared food merchants sell their goods. In a covered section of this space Mom, Eryi, and I peeked at all the food being fried, steamed, boiled, mixed, or rolled. We ended up buying some scallion-egg pancake, soy bean milk, ludan (egg), huaixiang baozi (vegetable bun), and a different kind of shaobing. It was all tasty – the three of us ate on a bench outside the alley in the playground/basketball court area.

baicai
bones-and-racks
chopping-meat
dried-goods
ludan
meat-market
meat-market_0
mini-tomatoes
phoenixtail-mushroom
qiezi-qing-jiao
squash
tossing-watermelons
yams-and-potatoes

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Since we were out, we also needed to make sure my grandma got her breakfast and that Xiaoxue took care of the morning chores. My mom opted to bring back some húlàtāng, while Eryi and I picked up some groceries from the zǎo shì (morning farmer’s market). When Eryi and I got back to the market and showed Mom the way back to Grandma’s, a lot more tables were laid out with more vegetables and fruit. Along the sides were huge counters packed with meat as well. I really wanted to take a picture but I had only brought my bus ticket. The pictures of the market from above are from a later date when I remembered to bring my camera.

My aunt and I bought lots of groceries including half a watermelon. Here is what we spent (1 RMB is roughly 1/6th of a US Dollar):
Xigua (watermelon) 14.80 RMB
Xihongshi (tomato) 7.00
Xiandan (“salty egg”) 6.00
Qiezi (eggplant) 4.00
Qingjiao (green pepper) 2.20
Huanggua (cucumber) 2.60
Nangua (winter squash) 4.00
You cai (vegetable) 3.00
Fengweigu (phoenix tail mushroom) 4.00
Total: 47.60 RMB

Lunch was very good – Eryi and Xiaoxue prepared qiezi wit potato, qingjiao, doubanjiang (bean paste), garlic, and some other spices; youcai with fengweigu; fish soup with winter squash…

~ end of entry roughly 6:30 pm, Hao Hong Yuan