Things I saw this week in Shanghai…

I recently went to my regular plant shop in Jinqiao.  Jeri's plant store is in a strip mall, and is packed with plants, trees, etc.  As I was leaving through an alley, I walked through a make-shift bird market.  Lots of wild and domestic birds, and trays of grubs and meal worms to feed them with.  Everything was really haphazard, and there was a woman sitting and hand-feeding a black bird a paste that looked like mashed rice and wheat.  Unexpected, and fascinating - a lot like Shanghai.
     In China, keeping song birds is an old tradition.  Emperors used to keep song birds, and the more beautiful the song, and the more colorful the bird, the more it valuable he was.  In the country, it's not unusual to see people taking their birds (in their cages) out for walks in the morning.  China is the only country where people walk their birds, and eat their dogs.

Ok,…so wasn't this Furby a trend / hot toy / fad over 10 years ago?  I saw this display at Carrefore.  It wouldn't be so strange if it weren't equal to $114.00 each.  How is that ok?

     These bottled Bacardi mixed drinks reminded me of Club Cocktails in a can from long ago (I'm totally dating myself).  The Bacardi is mixed with lemon-lime, ginger ale or coca-cola, and is $2.20 each.  I don't know why it's ok that their logo is a bat.  

rip off

with Lemon-Lime, Gingerale

with Coca-Cola

Used my new Sukiyaki pot this week - nailed it!  Back in the US, this clay pot would be around $100 dollars.  I bought it at the restaurant supply store in Puxi for around $10.  I also used the Midea pressure cooker to make dinner the other night.  Chris had asked someone at work to interpret the front of the cooker for me.  I cooked chicken with potatoes and carrots.  It reminded me of New England boiled dinners, but with chicken.  Really moist, and with a nice broth that the kids poured over their potatoes.  The Chinese like to use pressure cookers, like we in the US like our slow-cookers.  Pressure cookers are helpful making rice porridge and congee, very common Chinese breakfast items.

Sukiyaki

pressure cooker

dinner!