Sidewalk Butcher Shop

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My father-in-law, who has now lived in Shanghai for four and a half months, recently told me that China might convert him to vegetarianism.  I just can’t understand his position, seeing as how meat is advertised so appetizingly here.  Take, for example, these delectable offerings along a local market street.  Tyler and I enjoyed these sights (and accompanying smells!) as we walked to music class one morning.

street-side fish & fowl

cut to order, as the duck looks on (I believe those are eels curled up in the back)

future Peking Duck?

getch'er sausage 'ere!

gutted fish provide shade for the butcher's block

ducks in a row

Are you hungry yet?

The China Cough

The air quality here has been so poor recently that it’s headline news around the world.  Beijing’s pollution over the weekend was literally off the scales.  Shanghai has been suffering from some nasty air too; I woke up on Saturday morning barely able to see the skyscrapers just a few blocks away from us through the hazy smog.  When we went out, even inside a grocery store deep within a mall, I could feel my nose burning.  Needless to say, our apartment’s air filters have been cranked to full capacity 24 hours a day for the past week.  I shudder to think about our electric bill, but it seems like the least serious of the potential consequences.

This morning I awoke to a very dry nose and scratchy throat.  A friend on the phone asked if I had a cold, because I sounded congested and gravelly.  My Chinese tutor also apparently noticed my symptoms during our lesson.  At the end, he told me he was going to teach me a buzzword.  He wrote out:

中国咳

Pronounced “zhongguo ke”, these characters translate as “China cough”.  The phrase started as the “Beijing cough”, and was used almost exclusively regarding foreigners who developed sore throats while living there.  But now, as pollution is rampant throughout the country and even born-and-raised urban Chinese are developing uncomfortable symptoms, the phrase has become ubiquitous.  

Today I won't get into the politics of censorship, and how the government has always tightly controlled air quality monitoring.  How they issued stern warnings to the United States, whose local consulates began their own testing and publishing of air quality metrics last year.  How I've noticed some recent signs of admittance of a problem, including the local government issuing notices to schools to halt outdoor exercises during heavy pollution periods.  How I'm hopeful that we will witness a shift in policy during our time as residents of China.  How I believe the conversion from coverup to cleanup is inevitable, if not imminent.

No, for today, I'll just enjoy another afternoon indoors…

Flavor Confusion

You know that popular flavor often denoted with a little leaf or green letters/packaging?  It is delicious when paired with chocolate, makes a yummy ice cream flavor, and is typically used to freshen breath in products like gum, lozenges, and mouthwash.

If you grew up in a culture like mine, you’re probably thinking mint.

But in the culture where I’m now living, this means green tea.

I have lived in China for almost a year and a half now, and still at least once every few weeks I will buy something “mint” flavored that makes it all the way into my mouth before I realize my mistake. 

Don’t get me wrong, I actually really like green tea as a drink (in fact, I’m enjoying a cup as I sit here typing).  I even enjoy the matcha green tea flavor used in desserts like ice cream and chocolate truffles and Starbucks lattes.  I’ve been known to purposefully buy that flavor many a time. 

Yet I cannot shake my association with certain products, certain labeling, and a certain flavor: mint.  And when I want – then expect – something mint-flavored, the green tea taste becomes rather repulsive.  I wonder how many more times I will repeat this mistake before I learn.  Probably just in time to move back to the US and shudder when my chocolate-covered matcha ice cream bar tastes surprisingly minty…