Genesis 1:12 “The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.” (NIV)
Lunch at a Chinese restaurant with glass floors was memorable and we enjoyed a Panda shaped dessert. Everything was served family style and they kept bringing food until we learned to leave some on our plate. Food left on the plate signifies that you are finished. I remembered what my grandmother said, “Clean your plate. There are starving children in China.” Grandma, I did not see any lack of food.
I left for a bit of a search of this city and found Wal-Mart. Nothing is more interesting than Wal-Mart in China. Household goods, food bins, strange fish with guards as clerks around them. We think they were guarding sea urchins, frozen in a small box for sale for about $1,300.
Vegetables that are unidentifiable to Western eyes are mixed with things we do know but are in different colors. Fruits were abundant but of different shapes and sizes: Longan, a white fleshy apple like fruit, Mangosteen with white centers and purple soft skins, Lychee with white centers and prickly strawberry like outsides and Pitaya or “dragon fruit” is beautiful with pink skin with green hard spiny leaves and white fruit inside with black seeds. Why did they all have white insides with different outsides? They were weird to our foreign eyes.
Food in different countries helps us understand the people who live there. Grocery stores are your windows to the common folk who do not care about the tourist places. Or you.
What is the most interesting thing you have eaten? How did it make you feel to eat something you have no idea what it is? Are you brave with food choices?