Gustatory Delight

Just keeping you apprised of what is available at your, oops, my local Wal-Mart.

One can only wonder if all the things that go around the internet saying these are available at Wal-Mart in China, are true.  Well, here are some items to tempt your taste buds.......not necessarily gross, none the less, not likely to be found in your local Wal-Mart.  And no, I have not seen any crocodile.

 Eggs.  Now I know you have eggs in your Wal-Mart, but you don't have this many, there are two huge sections  and yours are refrigerated. Also, I doubt you can get Quail (see them in the bottom left corner) or Duck eggs in yours.  Another interesting thing is the packaging....10, 12, 15, 18.....Don't know the logic behind that.

Mound-o-Squid!  Frozen squid just hanging out waiting for you to pick the most delectable one:)

Fancy, Schmancy Oreo's all decked out for Chinese New Year, the Year of the Snake is coming up.  

 These are dried Sea Cucumbers...I just noticed the price....3,620 kuai.  Approximately $580.00 just in case you want me to bring you some....you would have to reimburse me.  No wonder they are in a glass case whenever you see them in stores.

I have no idea what these are as I do not read Chinese characters...dried something!!

Nice clean, pink pigs feet in the butchers case.  I do not know what makes some meat special enough to end up in the case and other meat to be heaped up for people to choose their own from.  I guess there are some giant leg bones here too, probably pork as that is all that seems to be in this case.






Sausages, many types all hanging for your selection.  No wrapping, no covering, anyone can touch any of them.....Since they are not labeled I do not even try them:(




Love, fondly, sincerely,
Zaijian,
Ramona

Redecorating

I finally got brave!
You are not in the wrong place, welcome to my new look!

I decided to play around with the customizing of my blog.  The results are obvious.....I am not happy with the size of the picture but I will try to figure it out and reduce.  New color, green, my favorite, sort of matches my new coat:)  A little relocation and modification.  It takes so long with the VPN cutting out constantly......maybe more tweaks to come:)

Love, Fondly, Sincerely,
Zaijian,
Ramona

 

Just for fun, look at the tag on the apple sitting on the counter in my kitchen in Beijing:)

Jing Kai Wan Jai

A New Market to Explore.....

Right up another alley of mine...............Dishes, Kitchen supplies and Textiles!!

Thousands of Dishes!

I heard from someone there was a restaurant and hotel supply market here in Beijing, in fact I have since heard there are two!  So I went on the computer and Googled my subject and was lead straight to a friends blog.  She has lived here for about 7 years now and she used to do a blog about all she did.  It is very useful and informative.  I didn't realize it was hers when I first found it as she didn't use her first name on it and I just didn't recognize her last name with all the other stuff in the web address.  When I was trying to go to Wool Spinning City I came across it the first time and then happened to be talking with her as she had said she would like to go again sometime so I called her......That is when she said to go to my blog and read about it and get the directions......Oh my, already been there!!

So when I went to her blog and found what I needed I called her and told her she had saved my life again.......She was a tad confused as we hadn't spoken since before the holidays, so I explained.  She offered to drive, I invited my other friend and we went off Monday morning to explore.  I was actually on  a quest:)

 I just love these white pitchers.  They are very tiny, only one and a half to two and a half inches.

Rooms, or better said, individual stores under one roof, full of dishes.  They show all the dishes as blanks and you can order patterns on them.  I am not sure how the process works, if there are pattern books or not.  They do display some patterned place settings and serving pieces but by far they are the blanks. 

 These black and red ones happened to be in a store of only plastic dishware.  Yep, everything you see in this picture is a plastic dish!

My new dishes:)

The result of my quest.

I went to this market in hopes of finding a set of dishes to use for buffet serving when we have parties at our home.  I love my Fiesta-ware but it doesn't always go with my decoration color scheme.  I needed some inexpensive plain dishes.  These are just what I wanted.  They have concentric rings of varying widths on the rims and they are actually fine China,  just at a much better price than I could ever find in the US.  They didn't have the smallest plate and bowl in stock so I could only bring home the two larger plates and I will have to return to get the other dishes when they come in.  I love them and have already used them as I had 12 friends over last night to play Bunco and I had to serve them all dinner.  I love to cook.  It was so good to have a gathering at our house.  

 For less than $5.00 you could get these cupcake papers in whatever color you wanted or a few patterns and several sizes.

Doilies!
I love doilies!   For $4.00  I got 250 doilies:)  They are so cute.

If I wanted to I could get this little tea service.  If I wanted to.  Look closely at the motif.

This store was huge!  It had everything you needed to open a restaurant including the biggest rice cooker I have ever seen and  woks that must be 36 inches across!

 Another store,a different selection of products.  These are all serving pieces.  The clear ones are all plastic.  Glass was elsewhere.

 Place settings, bread baskets..........

Linens galore.
You choose your pattern, color and sizes and you order....Some sheets were available but this is for hotel supply so they don't have a lot on hand and my friend said after ordering something the size she needed she washed it and it was not longer the size she needed......buyer beware!

                                                                                  

Everyone wears uniforms here.  Even in Department stores.  Any types to be of service worker wears a uniform and there were many styles to be had at this market.

 I had no idea there are so many chef jackets out there!!

And just in case you missed my other blog on the smog.......Here is what it was like on Monday...Still not fit for man nor beast but we were out in it.

To be sure I am not missing America....look closely.....yep, Mickey D's!  Of course I never ate there in the US so I am not tempted now!!

Love, Fondly, Sincerely,
Still Breathing,
Zaijian,
Ramona

Some pictures

Saturday January 12, 2013.

We went on some errands on Saturday and this is what we saw.

 SMOG

The air is just not going anywhere!!

  SMOG

SMOG

This is Olivia holding some of our purchases, two giant IKEA bags filled with stuff we got at Wal-Mart.  Gotta love China, a multinational shopping experience!

 These last three shots are out the second floor window in what we call the family room.  It is a large room at the top of the stairs on the second floor and is the warmest room in the house.  Consequently we spend most of our time in it.

As  you can see it was not a good day in Beijing for people who are breathing.  






Love, fondly, sincerely,
zaijian,
Ramona

The Weekend Report

Smog Report, that is:

My good friend in Wisconsin just sent me a note saying we made the news in the good old USA!
I am not so sure it is a good thing that we made the news:(

Here is why we made the news.

This was Saturday evening January 12 

If you would like to check it while you are reading this....click on this Air Quality Index China.  We took a photo of the computer screen to commemorate it for all time.  My friend says she has never seen it this bad in her 12 years here!!  Welcome to Beijing!!

Love, fondly, sincerely,

zaijian,

Ramona

New Coats

Custom made down coats!

My friend had a coat custom made as it is hard to find things here that fit if you do not have the perfect Asian body.  Believe me....I do not have that body:(  

I tried on some jackets at a store when we were in Tianjian last fall.  I got up to a 4X......I do not wear that size in America.....and it felt like my arms would fall off from lack of circulation.  It seems the Asian women do not have shoulders/deltoids or biceps to speak of.  So I decided to try the custom coat place my friend had used.  

So three of us piled into our car on a Tuesday morning to head to the market where she had gotten hers.  (Another friend wanted one too)  I had given Mike the business card she had to show his admin who would then pass on the information to the driver.  It is a very good thing the one who had been there came along.  She kept saying to the driver this didn't seem like we were headed in the right direction.  She wasn't exactly sure as she had taken the subway before.  Finally the driver shows her the map he had been given........It was not the right place!!!  We finally got it straightened out and got there with a drive that took at least twice as long as it should have!

Measurements were taken, colors chosen and we ordered our coats.  Mine seemed to be more expensive than my friends had been but then it had been two years....My friend asked, she speaks Chinese, the person told her it was because my fur was so expensive.   OK, whatever.....
I planned on getting one for Olivia too but I was not going to pay that price for the fur again.....so I went to my favorite market Muxiyuan where they have an entire area of fur things.  All colors of fur things; she wanted grey.  I found two pieces that I thought she would approve of and paid way less than for my one......live and learn!!  I do love that market!!  We went back on Saturday to order Olivia's.

We went to get them the day before we headed to the States for holiday....It was so sad and depressing.  They did not fit!!  They were so tight, again I thought they were trying to cut my arms off buy cutting circulation and Olivia's just zipped with no room to breathe.  So he remeasured and we added to his measurements because he came up with the same numbers.......
Yesterday we went back to the market and came away much happier with new coats, Yipeeee!!!  We had the shop keeper take our picture.

Behind us are sample coats that you can choose styles and he has books to look through as well.    The sample Olivia choose from was of the shiny variety like the green coat over my right shoulder....only it was bright yellow!  You must have creative vision when designing your own coat!!  The plastic bags contain coats waiting to be picked up. 
Olivia is sporting the new scarf I made for her:)

Love, fondly, sincerely,
zaijian,
Ramona