Sometimes a trip to the JinQaio Carrefour just begs you to take pictures and share of the adventure that we call grocery shopping! Now Carrefour is actually mild compared to the local grocery stores and also the wet markets where the native Shanghai people won't even take foreigners because they can't handle it! There are two sections of Carrefour that we majorly try to avoid...meat and dried fish...both as the title of this post suggests, an assault on the senses. As for meat there is really fresh - as in still alive, swimming in tanks, crawling on ice, jumping or slithering around; there is fresh - being cut off the slab and thrown into grocery carts, bare hands, no wrapping, lying fresh & bloody on ice; and then there is frozen - every body part included, legs sticking in the air! Last week must have been some kind of special on frozen as there were literally dozens of people in the frozen meat section (thus the reason it drew my attention!) What was most interesting is that in order to get the piece they really wanted everyone took the frozen meat and kept throwing it on the ground to break it up. So....you want me to buy meat first that everyone has touched with their bare hands and then second that has been thrown on the ground in the store where everyone walks with who knows what on their shoes?!?! Wouldn't surprise me if we had some people become vegetarians after this adventure!
Next comes the dried fish section - sometimes unavoidable as it stands between the fresh fruits & veggies and the bread! Let me just say as far as meat & fish go, apparently you can dry & preserve just about anything and any part of anything! This section isn't as much the sight but more the smell that is overwhelming! Tough to pick out french bread with the strong smell of dried fish floating in the air! Of course the time we saw a little boy (with his father's help) peeing in a coffee cup right by the open bin of dried shrimp didn't help either!
And I wonder why we order out 3-4 nights per week?!?!
