Some of you may have visited the blog this past Saturday, and for that, I am sorry. I’m sorry for any and all eye injuries sustained from being exposed to the hot mess that was this site three days ago.
A bad plug-in + 3 failed tech support live chats + the fact that this happened around 3 PM China time while I was at a work event, and I couldn’t get to it until around midnight = a supremely demented looking blog for about 10 hours.
But I’ve got it all back to normal now, I think.
Whoo! Let the healing begin.
To partially make up for all that tech-related nonsense, here are some photos from a recent trip to the local market. We’ve been kind of willfully lackadaisical about our “Life” posts lately, but sometimes I do remember to take the camera for a jaunt outside the apartment (imagine that! Using a camera for something other than close-up shots of one’s lunch…). If you haven’t seen our very first market post from when the parentals first moved to Beijing, find it here. The market has changed quite a bit since then, upgrading and expanding. ‘Tis the general way of things here, I suppose.
The place is open from around 6 AM to 1 PM, so if you don’t get there in the morning, you have to subject yourself to the big Jingkelong supermarket down the street, whose limp and lifeless produce makes you wish you’d gotten your butt out of bed earlier. If you do get to the market, however, get ready to fight through crowds of old ladies, restaurant produce buyers, and an inordinate amount of rolling shopping bags. Have I mentioned how difficult it is to take a photo when a seventy-year-old lady is poking you in the ribs and telling you to “get out the way!”? She did it in Chinese, of course, but if she could speak English, I’m guessing those would be the words she’d have chosen. Boundaries here in China are often thin and/or nonexistent, especially when you’re talking about old ladies and their tendency to scold complete strangers for bad behavior.
When these photos were taken last week, we’d gone out around 9 AM, which meant breakfast time. In the alleyway leading to the market, a small stall was selling steamed buns, tea eggs, and porridge. Pretty basic morning fare around here.
And this lady was already hard at work repairing shoes. She’s probably been doing this a long time.
Inside the market, the best thing there was clearly the bright, juicy oranges that are in season right now.
The tiny satsumas are still available, but they won’t be around much longer. These things are like candy.
Then there’s this guy, who’s super serious about anything having to do with onions and/or carrots.
The mushroom lady had a new batch of these babies, which we wanted to dry for later.
This lady could dismantle a pineapple in under a minute.
And we bought one of these pumpkins–the best pumpkin we’ve ever found for baking. In our Pumpkin Pie, Pumpkin Scones, and Pumpkin muffins, this was what we used.
As we left the market, we stopped over at the bakery stall, where we saw something familiar…
I was simultaneously excited and skeptical. I make my own bagels now that a good bagel is nearly impossible to find in my current universe, but we bought three of these intriguing facsimiles anyway.
Alas! They turned out to be bagel-y only in their shape, shininess, and decorous application of sesame seeds. They were much more similar to the soft, slightly sweet buns you get at any other Chinese bakery than they were to the chewy perfection that is a NY bagel. Kind of similar to this dough we made for the Chinese BBQ Pork Buns last week. Interesting, nevertheless.
That was our trip to the market last weekend! Apologies again for the bizarrely psychedelic look we appropriated for those 10 agonizing hours. My retinas are still burning.
We have some great recipes coming down the pipeline, so look out for them in the coming days! : )
Love these photos. It reminds me of the years we spent in China. I loved shopping at the open markets. And also in our towns we had these cards filled with produce. They would come into town super early in the morning before the police went to work. We had to get up early to catch them. If we were too late, the police would come and start turning them over. Sad. But it would not deter them from coming back the very next morning. Thanks for your site.We get to make all the good things that our kids miss badly
Hi Tanya, it’s also nostalgic for me to look at this post all these years later! Thanks for being a reader, and for leaving us a comment!
thanks for answering. I’ve been to Beijing several times and never had to wear a mask. On the flip side, I found out that my boogers had turned black every time I blew my nose. (TMI, but I have no shame!) I can’t imagine what it’s like now. It sounds like everyone just rolls with it.
Oh man…no strangers to the phenomenon that is black mucus. (we have no shame either). But indeed we do roll with the punches around here. Or just stay inside and cook all day. : )
Totally off-topic, but how are you guys dealing with the pollution? I noticed that nobody was wearing a mask in your photos. Are you ever worried about eating the food in Beijing?
Hey Sam, considering that we JUST got a break after a 3-day stint of “beyond index” pollution levels, we do actually make it a habit of strapping those 3M masks to our faces when we go out. Here’s Kaitlin sporting one last summer: https://thewoksoflife.com/?s=beijing+impressions. It really is miserable here sometimes. On weekends when the air is too horrible to go outside, we stay in and cook for the blog. Food safety is also an issue, of course, which is why we really like to make a lot of our own stuff from scratch. It’s a fact of life while we’re here, I guess! Did you used to live in BJ?