Just because we are in China...

Doesn't mean we have to go without "Western" food!  So we are a little embarrassed to report that, to date (just over 2 weeks here - wow, can you believe it has already been 2 weeks?!), we have only eaten one Chinese meal!  Although Bethany eats the lunch provided at work every day, which is of course Chinese food!  Oh well, we have plenty of time to explore different Chinese dishes. For now, with all of the change we are experiencing, finding Western food at either restaurants or in the grocery store is comforting to us all. 




Saturday Morning Breakfast!
Potatoes are from a local veggie market, eggs from a store in Shanghai that delivers to Wuxi once/week, bacon is from a local store in Wuxi ... and we brought the coffee from the US (although we can get Starbucks and Folgers here, for a small fortune!)

 

Of course it is not always easy to find foods with which we are familiar.  And just because the can says "Taco Sauce" does not mean that it's the taco sauce we are used to.  In fact, the taco sauce we got for our tacos (we failed to take a picture of our awesome tacos) was more of a Salsa.  And the can of black beans was really small kidney beans.  Nevertheless, our tacos were excellent.

As we've mentioned before, the other hard part we have found with grocery shopping and cooking in China is that you have to go to so many different stores to get everything.  There is one store within walking distance (15-20 min) where we can get a few basic things.  There is also a veggie market nearby where we can get all of our vegetables, we just wash them thoroughly before eating.  We can find some basics at local Korean Store and Bakery, both located right outside the gate of our apartment complex, which is perfect if we are in dire need of milk, bread, rice, tortillas, crackers, Special K cereal (yay) or beer! :)  For our meat, we found a store in downtown Wuxi (about a 15 minute taxi ride).  Of course it is primarily in Chinese, so we are grateful for the pictures of the cow, pig or chicken!  It even shows us from what part of the animal the meat is [supposed] to be!  Pretty sure we didn't need the picture for the chicken feet!  For a wider selection of Imported foods, there is Metro - which is about 10 minutes from Bethany's work (maybe 30 min drive from our apartment).

Anyway, we are making do with the foods we find and continue to purchase new cooking supplies.  Ikea is our new favorite store!  Thank goodness it is only 30 minutes away (right across from the Metro)!  We have purchased all of our kitchen supplies there.  The first time we went, we saw a baking dish, but it was so small that we decided not to get it.  We went to several other stores and couldn't find a baking dish.  So, for our first meal (pork chops), we had to use aluminim foil in the oven!  Worked out great until we checked to see if they were done and cut a hole in the foil!  Juice of course went every where!  Now we have a small baking dish for future use! :)