Entering the average
covered “ farmers” market in China is a special experience each and every time. Most markets will have a variety of mini
restaurants around the perimeter with vendors throughout selling their
wares. At these markets you can have a lunch of bei fang 北方 (noodles) along with buying items to cook
for dinner that night. You can choose from a variety of things such as a live fish jumping out of a bin, piles of rice, fragrant spices,
vegetables, and fruit along with bins of preserved … stuff.
I am not sure what 90% of it is
so I am just going with "stuff". The chickens are in cages waiting for
someone to choose them for dinner that night and there are 10 different kinds
of raw and cooked eggs in piles for you
to pick through. Duck eggs, pigeon eggs, chicken eggs..... raw, smoked, cooked in tea or boiled in water,
you want a particular kind of egg and I
bet it is there.
One of the most unusual things I
ran across were Buddha shaped pears .
The pears are grown in a special clear casing which forms them into different
shapes and then are given as gifts on
special occasions. The perfect gift
for someone who has everything!
Stopping at a market during the
lunch time rush we were beckoned in by owners of one of the food stalls and given the single table in
the kitchen that was set up in a 10 x 10 permanent booth type structure . The owners spoke about 3 words of English which
was enough for us. We were sat at the
table and watched as bowls were covered in bags and then filled with wonderful vegetables
, spices, noodles and broth. They were set in front of us with chopsticks and we dug in. Wonderful!
Somehow the owner knew something was missing for Greg, so he reached
over and gave him several sliced garlic cloves . That made it a perfect, spicy, garlicky
lunch.
After 15 minutes of watching the
couple cook together and welcome us with different tastes, we paid our 4 US
dollars and took home wonderful memories along with two pounds of noodles to eat later. 
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