An Explanation For Site Weirdness

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! : )