Jesse and I saw a Chinese news report about a huge wholesale produce market open to the public. It seems the locals are going to this market since the food prices had jumped 16% in one month, due to impact of China’s worst drought in 50 years. This wholesale market supplies most of the produce to all of our local wet markets, supermarkets, restaurants and fast food outlets. The prices are a good 20-30% cheaper. This market had pretty much everything, from vegetables to meats to cookware to seasonings. We read that 150 million USD goes through there a day.


We’ve been trying to find skirt steak, from Pine’s to City Shop. “Meiyou” was their answer. So we decided to visit a real butcher. This was Jesse showing the butcher where the skirt steak was. In Chinese, it literally means 牛裙, if they’ve ever heard of it.


“Free range Plymouth Rock chickens. Incredibly tasty. 15 kuai a jin.” 1 jin = 500 grams, or 1.34 pound.


The sign reads “Unique purple skin garlic: fragrant, pungent, do not sprout and full of antibiotic properties .”