What is better? Fresh or packaged

Tyler, Shirley(Tyler's helper) and I all went to the "local" market last week for the first time. Some people also call it the wet market but I'm not sure why yet.

(Produce picked today or yesterday and trucked in from the country)

I must say that if the USFDA had come and inspected the place I think it might not have made the standards we expect in the US but then I got to thinking...

(Yes, that is a tree stump)

All of these vegetables were probably picked within the last day or so, the pigs and chickens had been made into meat in the past day or even that morning or as you can see from the photos "right now" so can you get any fresher than that? In America, we like it all to be "sanitary". It must be sealed, signed and delivered in Styrofoam packages in order for it to be safe. I wonder how much bacteria is on the meats and vegs that we eat in America verses the meat and vegs which have been picked and eaten within the same day.

Of course then there is the taste. Nothing beats fresh eggs and vegetables.

Fresh eggs (not refridgerated)

How long does it take for a pork chop to go from start to finish in America vs. China. I don't have the facts but wonder how long and how fresh American food is compared to the Chinese way of eating. Chinese pride themselves on eating fresh foods. Locals buy their food fresh EVERY day. It is part of the day. You get it from the market, bring it home, cook it and that is the end of it. No freezing, canning or left overs. It makes you wonder about how we do things at home. What do you think?

Live shrimp and chickens

P.S. We did eat the "local" food which Shirely prepared for us and it was delicious and we did not get any kind of food poisoning...

Vacation in South China

We had a great time on our vacation to Sanya China which is the southern most point of China. It is at the 18 latitude and is very similar to Hawaii. Tropical with warm weather all year, lots of beautiful beaches, coconut trees, fragrant flowers and even Chinese people who are a little more laid back than in Shanghai. We discovered however that every few people speak English and most of the Westerns that do visit are from Russia. All the signs were in Chinese and Russian and some were in English.




Crazy "Cab" drivers will heckle you as you walk onto the street to take you to the seafood restaurants right down the road. It was just a little too local for the McKinnon kids so we just looked around after we made it down to the shopping area.





They also sell all the items you would need at the beach: Hats, sand toys, sun dresses and the funniest matching shirt and pants outfits that you can find. They really look like PJs but everyone wears them so you can feel right at home. Of course you cannot just pay the going rate for the dress of 50RMB ($7.50). It is acceptable to cut that in 1/2 and only offer 25 RMB ($3.25). The bargaining goes back and forth. You must walk away at least once and threaten to go to the vendor 2 ft away and see what they will charge you! In the end you and up pay about 35 RMB and everyone is happy.





Snorkeling was fun... More adventure of course. We did find a guy who spoke English so that was quite helpful. There is coral around the outer islands but it is fished pretty heavily so the fish are a little harder to find then in Hawaii. Still a fun and adventurous side trip added flavor to our day.

Lots of time at the beach and resort pool. It was great to just be able to hang out as a family! We are blessed.

Fish Therapy

While in the south of China, a beautiful city called Sanya we stayed in a "Days Inn" resort. Sidebar here but Days Inn, Howard Johnson, etc are all nice hotels here in China...Go figure. One of the first things we noticed was the spa they had on the premises and one therapy specifically called "Fish Therapy". What in the world was that... Well after debating for a few days if and hour with flesh eating fish was worth the 48 RMB (about $6.00) we decided to give it a try. I have NOT laughed so HARD in a long time. It was like tickle torture. These little tiny fish come and just nibble on your body well as much of your body that you want to put into the water anyway. It was kind of weird to subject yourself to the torture but in the name of smoother skin we all sat there for an hour and let them chomp away at our dead skin. Savannah said afterwards, "maybe I should try this again when I am older since I don't have as much dead skin as you guys do".

Here are the photos......