Monday, June 30, 2008

Little things that make your day


On of the things that I LOVE about China is that in the darkest, dirtiest and most uninviting alleys hides the biggest treasures! No, OK, not really, but sometimes! U should never judge a warehouse because of its looks, because inside there might be an outstanding fruits/vegetable/meat/electronic/clothes market where u can shop until you drop. That is just what I did yesterday.

Not far from our flat is a dark and dirty sort of warehouse (I don’t know if warehouse it the right word for it, probably not, but I’ll just call it that and hope that no one gets annoyed) and yesterday I discovered that inside is a large fruit and vegetable market! Fresh stuff, cheap prices, friendly service. It cannot get any better! We bonded with a fruit lady on the second floor and tried probably all the fruits you can try in a fruit stand (how about some kind of mega large litchi?! Really yummy!) and best of all: I found fresh, good tasting avocado for 15 kuai/each.

It is funny this thing with avocado. First time I visited Beijing and made an inquiry about it (to my very smart translator) I got the confused reply. My translator (and friend) had never heard about my favourite veggie. We later went to a supermarket so that I could point it out to her (as she started to doubt I was talking about something that actually did exist) and when I did, she admitted she’d never seen, nor tasted one before. I was about to buy us a bunch until I realised why my friend might have never wanted to try this on her own: avocados here are so expensive!!! It was something like 120 kuai/kilo.. ehum.. no thanks?!

Some months later, when I moved to Shanghai, I eventually had to give in for my cravings for chicken and avocado salad but then came the next big problem: try to find a good tasting avocado at this place. Not an easily solvable matter.

That’s why I am so happy I am basically devoting a whole blog post (geeez, I am impressed by those of you who’ve made it this far?!) to the fact that I have now found good tasting avocados in Suzhou. See how small things can make your day over here? Finding food that u miss are definitely a thing that brightens ups my days in China.

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