Where's the adventure gone?

When we first moved to Shanghai everything was different.  And by different, I mean compared to home.  We would look in amazement at food stalls, markets, 'designer' bags, T-shirts, chopsticks, activities, kites, traffic and so on, amazed at what was happening.  We would go to the supermarket, Carrefour, and be agog at the quantity of stuff, the piles of slippers, plasticware, noodles, mobile phones, TVs, soy sauces and so on; we would be a combination of fascinated and disgusted by the meat handling techniques and storage conditions.  We would try, a bit tentatively, whatever they were sampling in the supermarket that day, usually a dumpling of some description, or we would shake our head and say no.

We couldn't buy a lot of imported home comforts.  Weetabix (the UK version of Weet Bix) were incredibly overpriced.  There were only a couple of stores which were very expensive but specialised in imported food stuffs, mostly American junk food, like Goldfish.  Vegemite was not available.  But Bega cheese was.  Quality was variable.

Our first years in Shanghai meant that we branched out and tried new foods.  We cooked in a wok (before I had an ayi who cooked for us) and ate our version of stir fry and rice because that was what was available.

Now, there are imported food stores all over, and Carrefour's range of imported goods has increased out of mind - Tim Tams are almost always in stock.  Still no Vegemite though.

This week I was a bit saddened, on a quick trip to Carrefour to see that in the middle of the store there was a taste test for Barilla Pasta and Sauce - is this now mainstream Chinese cuisine?  It wasn't even in the imported goods section, it was smack bang in the middle of the Chinese groceries.  And it wasn't expensive, dollar for yuan I think it would have cost the same in Sydney!

That wasn't the end of it though... I went through the newly renovated meat section where hygiene has improved out of sight in the last two years, and into the fresh produce section.  It was there that I almost burst into tears... after 2 years of having lettuces of dubious quality, but excellent cherry tomatoes to rival Italy, I found in a REFRIGERATOR the following...

A pre-mixed salad!!
Can you read what is written in ENGLISH?  It says Baby Leaf and Ready to Eat!!!  I was sceptical, but I bought it.  Bargain selling two for the price of one - AUD$1.20 total!!  Not much to lose if no good.


When I got home I opened it up, found fresh clean lettuce, still crispy even.  Sliced red capsicum, no slimy sides, cherry tomatoes, sesame mayonnaise dressing and a little fork.

It was better than anything I've ever bought for a cheap lunch from Coles Express at Wynyard!

But I was a little sad... I want to be living in China for the experience.  I want the adventure to keep going...