I don't recommend fruit flavored potato chips. They're just not right.

If you are well-rested, feeling very patient, and have an mp3 player with you - you might enjoy perusing the giant supermarkets. LOTS of people, aisles upon aisles of food stuffs you won't recognize, and blaring music and ads in Chinese. Eggs are an interesting thing here. There are tons of varieties in all the stores. It's overwhelming. And they aren't kept refrigerated here. It's kind of weird. Definitely something you have to get used to. Here's a pic of the egg section at a supermarket. See the picture with the specialty eggs. Let's see, there's a black ostrich egg, a white one, a peacock egg, a crocodile egg, a couple different duck eggs - options are endless! And then there's the bins of meat just out and in the open. There's a pic of some chicken feet ready for the taking!








Also not refrigerated is most milk. Except the local Chinese brands which most foreigners stay away from now. Expats buy imported milk - the French and New Zealand brands are the most popular with the westerners. It comes in little non-refrigerated cartons like you buy rice milk in the states. Doesn't taste quite like the US milk we're used to. Most things here don't taste quite the same actually. So far, I've learned most Chinese and imported (from Europe, Australia, New Zealand) dairy products have a different flavor unless I am lucky enough to find US brands which you can't always count on. I found some US sour cream the other day and bought several of them while I could. Even the import stores aren't consistant in the items they carry. It's a little bit frustrating that all of my normal recipes don't taste the same when I make them here!



Oh, and I must tell you about the potato chips here. It's a bit of an odd thing to me. You have to be cautious when buying chips - most of them are rather funky. Even though they say "Lays" on the package - these are not the Lays you are used to! Take advantage of the chip girl (in the photo) and try before you buy! The Chinese love to mix sweet (esp. in Shanghai where this region's cuisine has many sweet dishes) into things that are traditionally only savory in the US. In fact, in my opinion, all of them have at least a hint of sweetness. Let me give you some flavor examples: French fried chicken and tomato, cucumber and onion (sounds like they might be good - but beware!!), mexican tomato chicken, Italian red meat flavor, smoked eel, lichee, mango, spicy sechuan beef and onion - just to name a few. About the only ones we can handle, on the off occasion we buy chips, are the "classic American" (plain) and the "texas grilled BBQ" flavors which are similiar to their American counterparts.