A Shanghai Market

China is truly a land of contrasts. The buildings are tall, the cars are sleek, the number of billionaires rank second in the world and yet people hang out their underwear to dry on a street when it's sunny. It is odd and embarrassing yet kind of sweet and nostalgic.


Big zhongzi, glutinous rice dumplings, were only RMB2 to 2.50 each (RM1/USD0.30).


I stopped by a grocers and bought my Hub's favorite daediao bing, seaweed biscuits and chung you bing, spring onions biscuits.


Frozen fish. I wonder how they taste.

The market was 15 minutes' walk away and therefore very convenient for me. I bought a bit of everything, from veggies I've never seen before to goutie wrappers to glutinous rice sticks, for my in-laws.


























Cutting glutinous rice cakes. The fresh wheat noodles smelt heavenly.


These are wheat flour wrappers for making Shanghainese wontons. They are eggless and much thicker than Cantonese wontons.


A tea stall.


Dried chrysanthemum buds.


I packed everything into a cardbox board because it's light.





We were ushered out of the door by Douma (oldest aunty, who's 89) who was worried that we'd miss our flight. At the exit of the shikumen, I saw a lady cook lunch, her stove and condiments placed on benches. She was frying bell peppers with chicken and it smelt awesome. As I stopped to take photos, she said to me, "You take my photos, you must try my food!" I was delighted to and about to take up her offer when Hub yelled at me from the cab and gave me a I-can't-believe-you'd-do-that look.  Xiao shushu (youngest uncle, who's 82) and Douma were equally impatient (or disgusted) with me and led me away while the gawkers on the street laughed at me.