On 8/12/2014 at 1:54 AM, Dejah said:Been away for far too long! Catching up on my reading and enjoying this thread very much! Thanks, Liuzhou for sharing all the photos.
The first set of pictures reminds me of the first Wal-Mart we saw and visited in Beijing last year. We were in awe! I REALLY wanted to be back in my kitchen with all the stuff I saw, haven't seen or eaten for 50 years!
The outdoor markets remind me of the wet markets in Malaysia. I too was surprised at meat on display without refridgeration. As you said, people wash their meat purchases to death before cooking. At one of the chicken stalls we visited, they kill the chicken you choose, pluck and scorched the pin feathers with a torch, then cover it with tumuric if you don't tell them you don't want it "yellow". Would that be a way of keeping flies off?
I noticed the kitchen maid washing the chickens with some kind of solution before cooking them.
I assume most people in China would buy a live chicken and kill it at home...Couldn't be any fresher!
Welcome back.
Yes, most people buy live poultry and dispatch it at home. Same with freshwater fish, frogs etc. I usually buy live birds and freshwater fish.
But the market people will do the dirty if you prefer. Kill, gut, pluck etc. Obviously they don't pluck the fish, but they will gut and descale it. They will also deal with frogs although, again, most people take them home live.
No idea about the turmeric. Never heard of the practice. They don't do that here. In fact, they don't do turmeric.