Quick bus trip down to Guilin Lu today to pick up some things at the International grocery store. That sounds like a shiny western type place. Imagine instead a narrow stairway in a row of small shops and restaurant, leading past boxes and bikes and doors to the second floor. There is a door marked "Sam's Food Market." After you push the doorbell and are scanned by an eye in the door, the door opens and you are in a tiny room with two people, a calculator and some bottles of wine, adjoining two very small rooms, one with a freezer. E. needed some whole wheat pasta. We wanted salsa, tortilla chips and coffee. Score - there was some Campbell's cream of chicken soup as well! Actually the tiny store is very well stocked with the strange things that foreigners want to eat, mostly Americans, Canadians and Germans.
There is another one about two blocks away that is a bit more modern. Between the two we can get most of the things we miss. In the fall the real find was cheddar cheese. Right now, Walmart - or Waldemart - has extra-old Cheddar for less that we pay in Ottawa. Must be a December/January thing.
Anyway, the bus home bus passes several small outdoor markets. At the one closest to home there was one of the ubiquitous three wheeled bikes with a big box over the two wheels at the back. These often carry materials for recycling or supplies for the street cleaners. The box on this one was full of live roosters.
(This photo is just a random rooster. The ones I saw today may end up in tomorrow's hot pot.)
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