Thursday, November 19, 2009

chicken wings!

Today I set out to the store by myself to get some groceries while kyle was at work ~ after eating toast for breakfast and toast for lunch I decided we needed more in the house than just bread. After three-ish months of living life in China I'm actually getting quite used to going grocery shopping - picking up the usual and getting out before anxiety sets in. Today I felt a little brave and thought I would see what the meat department had to offer. Anytime before this I've tried to avoid it as much as possible because there are scary things like: turtles in tight nets trying to escape, crabs tied up tightly by string, naked meat lying on beds of ice...not something a newbie needs to experience. I wanted to cook something for my hard working husband and what's a meal without meat? I found chicken wings...not in a bag, but sporadically laid on a bed of ice, I stood and observed the process before I jumped in. I watched as a man held the plastic bag in one hand and picked over the wings with the other. He didn't seem to notice or care that he was touching raw chicken meat with his bare hands or that the sleeve of his coat was being dragged through the ice and raw meat...once he had gathered all he wanted he went to the meat counter where a woman took his bag from him, weighed it, and gave it back to him. I felt like i could do this too...SO with a sudden boast of courage I got a bag, turned it inside out and used it as a glove so I didn't have to touch anything with my hands, I was also careful to watch my sleeves or anything else from touching the meat. Once I'd gathered my lot I fought the crowd to the meat counter and shoved my bag out there with the rest of them. No one seemed to be bothered by the man behind the counter beating and chopping the mess out of a huge table of meat, or the woman investigating the ribs infront of me with her BARE HANDS. With a smile I took my bag of chicken wings from the lady behind the counter. I felt quite accomplished and ventured to the not as scary but still quite odd vegetable department where I picked up some potatoes and garlic...mmm I took a packed bus home just in time to cook wings and mashed potatoes and spend time with Kyle before we needed to start another day.

3 comments:

  1. Rebecca, what happened to the green vegetables on that plate? I'm sure you would like the deep fried grass that we used to buy from the streetside bbqs. Try them if you see them. Always remember when eating in China to eat where there are lots of people eating and you will not get sick. Don't worry that you don't know what it is you are eating, just be thankful that you have food to eat - it won't kill you or if it does, you will die happy and blessed.
    We soooo miss China and will hopefully be back next year for a visit.
    Dyan Leota

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for the tip! We eat a lot of "Veggies on a stick"! It's pretty good, i was actually going to pick some up for this meal but didn't have time :o) Thanks for reading!

    ReplyDelete