In the hunter-gatherer days our ancestors spent most of their time thinking about, and searching for, food. That occupation and perseverance lasted up to my grandmother’s day in the early 1900s and even she spent a lot of her time growing vegetables, making bread and chopping the heads off various poultry. That all changed with my mother’s generation. By the 50's food was canned, frozen or shrink-wrapped and you pretty much got it all at once, during the weekly trip to Safeway, Ralph’s or the A&P.
My early-married years in Berkeley, California followed that model. Saturday morning I would grab the checkbook and hit the supermarket, check off my list and stock the larder. We were set for the week. Fade out, fade in.
Then Whole Foods opened a store in the Pearl District a couple of years ago – within walking distance of our loft -- and it was like dying and going to food heaven. The system was the same, but boy, oh, boy, as long as money was no object you could stock up on almost anything you could think to eat, and then have a cup of coffee at the food bar!
That turned shopping Saturday into fun Saturday. With the basics within reach, food gathering became an adventure at the Portland Farmers Market My old dog Pete and I were fixtures each week, chatting with friends and vendors, sharing a grilled sausage, buying garlic, apples, and spuds, and enjoying the almost pioneer spirit of open air shopping. In these days of 21st century abundance, food gathering is no longer a chore but a celebration of community. Another fade out, fade in.
Last January we moved to Beijing in the People’s Republic of China and suddenly, in the middle of this huge city, I have regressed to hunting and gathering – this time urban style.
Weekly shop? Impossible. Here is the itinerary: Schindler’s German Food Centre for meat, Paris Gourmet for bread, Jinkalong for cleaning supplies, dry supplies and eggs, Jenny Lou’s for coffee, milk and cheese, and the Asian food stall market for fruit, vegetables, spices, rice and noodles. Since visiting them all in one day is impossible, I hit them variously during the week, discover mid-recipe that I am out of something, so then I run back over to Jenny Lou’s or the closest Jinkalong and hope for the best. I realized last week that I shop for some kind of food every single day.
I am not complaining. All in all, I enjoy the process. It is great fun just to see what products are imported. For example, someone should answer for the amount crap peanut butter on the shelves in China, and you will not be surprised to know that chocolate flavored breakfast cereal is popular here, too. Tasty Chinese goods are more difficult to suss as all the labeling is in Chinese and I have bought some pretty strange items thinking they were one thing and discovering them to be quite something else (fermented tofu is high on that list).
In the Asian markets, the vendors are great fun. I can practice my limited language skills (How much is a pound of apples, please? Do you have any ripe papaya today?) And although my ayi thinks I overpay for everything, I feel like I am doing OK. We can buy decent coffee and Mrs. Shannon’s bakery has started making pretty good bagels. Turns out I can live without Whole Foods after all, but I do miss the Farmers Market. Saturday mornings are just not the same without it.
