Thursday, June 30, 2011

China Part 6: Snapshots at a Farmers' Market


One morning in Beijing we had a little time and took a stroll through a farmers' market.  It was both familiar and exotic.


Coming from the Seattle area, I am used to having a great farmers' market.  The Pike Place Market is extremely well known, and deservedly so.  This market was a great one, too, and I really enjoyed the time we had to walk and wander, gawking and admiring all the gorgeous produce for sale.




I loved seeing the families doing their shopping and this mother and her adorable little one caught my eye.


Our tour guide, Peter Wong, explained the more unusual vegetables and fruits to us, but this celery needed  no explanation.


Nor these carrots!





These are garlic chives.  They are delicious in stir fry.  I can sometimes get them at my own farmers' market, the Edmonds Summer Market.






These happy ladies at a butcher stall were as happy to have their photo taken as I was to take it.



Every single item in the entire market was beautiful, fresh and clean.  It make me want a kitchen to be available so I could experiment with all the fresh, local ingredients and try my hand at cooking something truly Chinese.





Here you have the famous durian fruit.  You either love it or hate it, and for good reason.  To some, the aroma of a durian is delicious, to others, most offensive.  I find it somewhat stinky, but perhaps I have never had a full nose full, to be honest.  I have been told that the flavor is wonderful.  I would like to try it sometime.

Maybe.....




Black fungus, famous in Chinese cuisine.


Eggs....

"1000" year old eggs....



The most surprising find were these apples----from Washington State!



The sunflower seeds looked great.  I didn't realize that sunflower seeds were used in Chinese cooking.

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