That Old China Expat Life (Supermarket Edition)

You wanna vicariously live that China expat lifestyle? Well today I have got that experience for you. I'm gonna show you those old school China expat feels from way back before we had Hema delivery at home. If you were wondering why a country was so lazy that they invented the perfect system for delivering groceries at home, look no further!

I've had a couple of days of full-time dad babysitting of my little girl. While it certainly has been fun, it is hard to come up with stuff to do that meets my three criteria: 1. not boring (for me or for her) 2. cheap 3. will tire her out. I like it when she's asleep by 9:00 to be honest. So today's field trip involved going to the supermarket! I know, so glamorous, right? Before I get hate mail for being a bad dad, there was a point. We needed to get a little screwdriver so I could power up some cool toys I brought back from Korea. Oh yeah, and there's a McDonald's right there by the supermarket. Everybody who reads my STEEM should know how much I like Mickey D's.

So here it goes. Before we ordered everything from Alibaba apps, us China expatriates had to go to the grocery store to buy stuff. These kind of stores are not unlike any Wal-Mart that you might find in the US. The only difference between them is instead of being spread out over many acres, they are typically located in a much more urban area and therefore spread out over many floors. Oh yeah, and the fresh meat section is just a wee bit different...

First, how would you like some eels?

Everybody likes seafood, right? This is what I hear from my Chinese friends all the time. When I say "No, I don't really eat much seafood in China," they are always quite surprised. It's as if they've never looked in their own waterways. I live literally right on top of a river. I see dead fish float by on the daily. I can tell you first hand, "Don't eat the fish here. Period." To underscore my point, just take a look at the lovely presentation of the fish in the seafood aisle!

I'm sure it is delicious, especially with that extra special yellow gunk sauce they've got going on there. If that doesn't do it for you, check these fellas out.

I used to go fishing a lot when I was a kid. The part I hated the most was scaling the fish after we caught 'em. I usually was like, "Yeah, let's throw 'em back and go for Mickey D's on the way home!" Am I right? The point of buying your fish, or at least I thought, was that you didn't have to do all the icky stuff. Descaling and deboning is for the meat processing company to do. Well, not in China.

In China, bones are preferred. They say it brings the flavor to the meat. Yes, even if that means crunching through a bunch of tiny bones like in some fish. Also, when it comes to the pork, the bonier and fattier the better. Yum!

Them trotters are where it's at. That's the good stuff right there. Let me tell you. If you thought it'd get any better with the beef and the chicken, well, don't worry. I've got you covered. Of course, China likes pork so much that the pork spills over into the beef section (I think, although this could be oxtail in the foreground, you never know).

You guys like chicken feet, right? Well... here you go!

Thanks to the wonders of technology, I haven't had to set foot in a place like this in years. It would be one thing if this were an open-air market with cheap veggies and a couple butchers spread about the place in the name of a well-balanced meal. But this is how the majority of China shopped right up until about 2016 when the Chinese savior Jack Ma decided to give us the option to do things a bit more civilized. Now, thankfully, in the first-tier cities at least, all we have to do to get groceries is

Search.

Click.

And wait (like an hour tops).