Reconnaissance

Over the last week, we visited 10 apartments in various complexes, checked out a couple of supermarkets and burned holes in our tongues with the Sichuan pepper.

On the topic of house-hunting, we narrowed it down to a new condo built by Keppel. We liked the design of the duplex but were not able to start negotiating proper because one owner was in Shanghai and the other gave an unrealistic furniture budget. How frustrating. Anyhow, we would just have to sit tight and continue negotiations when we are back in Helsinki.

Thankfully, huge supermarket chains such as Carrefour have reached Chengdu. I now know where to get LavAzza & Illy coffee for our moka pots, rice porridge for minibeanie and Betty Crocker's Brownie mix for that quick dessert :P However, there's a huge premium on imported stuff, and in many cases, as expensive if not more so than in Finland. I guess they will remain luxury items and we should try to have more tangyuan (glutinous rice balls usually filled with black sesame paste) which have a gadzillion brands as opposed to brownies and ice-cream. Yes, you read correctly. Apparently, ice-cream is either not a big thing or is a 'foreign' product. We were very surprised to find only a tiny selection of ice-cream even the local ones. But the strangest thing of all is that one just couldn't find tofu in the supermarkets!!! In the land of mapuo toufu, I would expect aisles of tofu; instead, zilch. Apparently, locals buy their tofu from local markets or neighbourhood stalls. What's surprising then is that manufacturers do not seem to have mass produced tofu. I find that incredibly hard to believe when supermarkets seem to be filled with locals and not expats. Surely then, there's a demand for tofu in the supermarkets? I hope to be corrected on this issue :)

Foreign food aside, there are lots of exciting new local produce to be tried. My mum bought some Mala Ganchang (dried sausage spiced with the ubiquitous sichuan pepper) and LaRou (dried meat) that looked and smelled wonderful. I promise to buy them when we finally move here ;P I've also invested in a couple of cookbooks that have pretty yummy pictures and promising recipes with not more 5 steps :D Let's see if they taste anything like what we've been having in the restaurants!

minibeanie is 5 months, 3 weeks & 1 day old