Tips for Living in China
The official unofficial guide for how to be foreign, if you forgot!
Taobao
Taobao.com is amazing and you can mostly trust the sellers. Its mafan to get an account to pay for stuff but if you have a Chinese friend who is willing to help you by using their chinese card, it'll make it easier. Taobao has lots of stuff and all the time. The worst part about buying western food in the store is you have to wait for the stuff to be in stock. You can order cheese and stuff on TB for it is shipped in dry ice. It is your choice: shop online or shop in-life. :)
Food & Drink
The biggest piece of advice I'd like to tell you is to be adventurous and have fun with it! Every store isn't going to have the same things and there is no consistency with foreign foods. You might see something you love for an entire month or even year but then the next day you won't see it again. So, if you really like something and you NEED it… Buy it.
Flour: Buy High Fructose Flour 高筋面粉 gao1jin1mian4fen1 (this is China's all-purpose flour). It can be used for bread, cakes, dough, tortillas, etc… You can buy it at Trust-Mart, and Walmart. Most of the other flour in China (just called mianfen) is flour made for dumplings. I've made tortillas and different doughs with it before but the all-purpose type bakes and holds together better.
Brown Sugar: Can be found at almost any type of grocery store. It is sold in a clear plastic with red sealed bag from the brand, Tai O.
Sugar: Sugar might taste a little different but if you get Tai O's brand white sugar it usually tastes the most normal.
Powdered Sugar: Tai O brand again, PS is hard to find but not impossible. In Chongqing it can only be found in Metro, last time I was in there it was in the isle as the spices and seeds.
Butter: You can get lots of butter here but you have to buy it when you see it. But make sure you look and see if it is salted or not! Most of the butter you'll see (not at Metro) will be unsalted.. So make sure you look. Unsalted butter isn't really useful and very mafan to make salted and make taste well.
Baking Soda and Powder: I have no idea if you can get this. My guess is that you can get it in Metro but I don't know. I bring mine or have it shipped from Meiguo!
Yeast: I've only ever seen yeast at Metro. I haven't ever bought it myself but if you ask the workers they might have it. (Tip: Ask at least three different workers. Sometimes people say they don't have something when they do because they don't know or think you are speaking English and they don't understand. I always ask a few people spread out in the store. (Don't be offended if they do this, it is just the fact that they are listening for English and not Chinese. It doesn't mean you pronunciation is horrible!).
Cheese: Cheese is hard to find sometimes. If I see it in Shapingba, I usually buy one just so I can at least eat cheese. Honestly, after not having it for so long, I start to forget about it and then I'm re-surprised. Metro always has it. SPB doesn't but like once every two weeks. Taobao might be something you want to use for cheese if you are a BIG FAN!
Fruits & Veggies: I get all my fruits & veggies from Carrefour, Wangfujin, or Yonghui. It doesn't really matter where but if you get it from a street vender it will most likely be cheaper and sometimes is fresher. Sometimes markets are fresher because they have farmers deliver products in big trucks so it is basically coming from the same place (I guess).
Meat: I don't and will not buy meat from a street vender. I'm too scared too. Their personal hygiene (washing hands mostly) and the standard hygiene of Chinese meat sections outside are pretty low. I like to buy meat in any of the three previously mentioned markets.
-Beef: I like Carrefour best for beef, they have a similar tasting beef to what we are used to. I use it for ground beef (they grind it for me). Wangfujin is my favorite place because there are never any people inside. It is so quite and clean! This isn't their store standard but the fact that the people coming to this store are more like a few hundred a day instead of thousands… it is nice inside!
-Chicken: I buy chicken breasts (鸡胸 ji1xiong1) at Wangfujin. There is always lots of chicken breasts and if they don't have any they'll go to the freezer and get you some. It is about 6-7 yuan per breast. Some of them seem less fresh than others.. Make sure you look through them.
-Pork: I'm not a pork fan so I'm not sure where you can get good pork. If you want pork tenderloin, I suggest going to market2meal.blogspot.com and looking at her post on how to find a good loin in China. She lives in China as well.
-Seafood: You can get seafood at any store. Most of the time is is alive or just killed. Be careful with seafood. China isn't known for having the best selection of fresh food. Fresh to the Chinese means alive (even if barely). Fresh to Americans means cleaned, not many chemicals, and you know how much of what is in it is bad or good for you. I've seen people with fish in bags in their carts and the fish jump out (with in the plastic bag) and then I saw a man with a fish in the plastic bag at a bus stop.. the fish was moving around a lot so the man took the fish and swung it up high and then pounded it on the ground as hard as he could to paralyze it..
Natural Tea: Find a tea store and experiment! I love to try new teas and in China it is hard to go wrong with tea! Buy dry flowers, berries, and seeds and see which ones your like. I love Jasmine tea and chrysanthemum.
Bottled Tea: I often buy Jasmine tea in a bottle. It is 3 yuan a bottle and it just tastes great! Just enough sweetness to make it taste right! There are about 10 or so different types of bottled teas and about ten companies that they different ones. See which company and which tea you like.
Soda: Coke, Sprite, Pepsi, Coke Zero, and Seven Up are the most popular types of soda in China. At Watson's Drugstore/Market you can buy Watson's Root-beer, Vanilla Soda, and imitiation Dr. Pepper but they are all horrible. I advise you not to try them.
To be continued...
