去菜市场买菜

Take a guess. The eggs I use to make my cakes, where do you think I buy them? Not the supermarket. The food market right by my home.

I am Xiao Yue, and I run a tiny dessert shop in Hangzhou. Three days a week I leave the house at six thirty, going to the market first and to the shop after.

A lot of foreign friends come to China and only go to supermarkets. Supermarkets are convenient of course, and everything is clean. But let me tell you, the food market is the really interesting place.

Why? Because at the market everything is fresh, and a little cheaper too. Most importantly, you get to pick things out yourself.

You have to go to the market early. Go late and all the good things have been picked over, leaving only the ones nobody wanted.

Before I leave, I always bring two things. The first one is a cloth bag.

In China, plastic bags cost money in a lot of places. Bringing your own bag saves money and is better for the planet.

The second thing is my phone. Why I bring my phone, I will tell you in a moment.

It is only a ten minute walk from my place. The market is one big hall, and inside there are lots and lots of little stalls.

The moment you walk in, the noise suddenly gets loud. Sellers are calling out, customers are asking prices, and little kids are running around in the middle.

The floor is wet and the lights are very bright. The air smells of green vegetables, of fish, and of sweet fruit.

The vegetable and fruit stalls are at the front, and the fish and meat stalls are all at the back. People who come for the first time very easily go the wrong way.

The first place I go is the egg stall. The owner is called Wang, and I call him Uncle Wang.

The moment he sees me he says, Xiao Yue, you are here? The eggs are especially fresh today.

When you buy things at a food market, there is one sentence you have to know: how much for one jin?

Jin is the weight unit Chinese people use all the time. One jin is five hundred grams, which is half a kilo.

Chinese people buying food almost always say jin, and rarely say kilo. Half a jin is two hundred and fifty grams.

If you ask how much for one kilo, the seller will understand you, but will think you talk a little strangely.

Uncle Wang says, five yuan fifty a jin. I say, give me three jin then.

I pick out the eggs while chatting with him. He puts the eggs into the bag one by one, and his hands move fast.

You might think eggs are the same wherever you buy them. Actually they are not. Whether a cake tastes good depends a lot on the eggs.

Once the eggs are done, I go to the fruit stall. This month I am making strawberry cakes, so I need to buy a lot and lots of strawberries.

The woman who runs the fruit stall sees me, and hands me a strawberry first, saying, try it, is it sweet?

At a food market, tasting one is a completely normal thing. And if you taste it and do not buy, that is fine too.

There are three very useful words here, and you have to remember them: fresh, pick through, taste one.

Fresh means just picked. Pick through means choosing them yourself. Taste one means eating one first to try it.

The strawberries really are sweet. I say, I want two jin, could you make it a bit cheaper?

She laughs and says, you come here every day, young lady, so I will take a yuan off for you.

But there is one thing here I should remind you about. Bargaining is not as common now as it used to be.

If the price is written on a board, do not bargain. If it is a price the seller says out loud, then you can ask.

She puts the strawberries on the scale, and it is exactly two jin. She says, twenty eight yuan altogether.

I take out my phone, scan the QR code on the stall, and it is paid.

See, this is why I bring my phone. At food markets these days, almost every stall lets you scan to pay.

Last of all I go to buy green vegetables. The vegetable seller is an older lady I call Auntie Zhang.

After I pay, she picks up a bunch of spring onions from the side, drops them in my bag and says, these are for you, no charge.

At a Chinese food market, if you keep going back to the same stall, the seller will slowly start giving you little extras.

A bunch of spring onions or some coriander is not worth much, but it is a kind thought.

Both my hands are full, and on the walk back to the shop the bags dig into my fingers and hurt a little.

But inside I feel happy. The heavier the bags, the better the things I got today.

Back at the shop, I wash the strawberries one by one first, then put the eggs in the fridge.

By the afternoon, those strawberries have turned into little cakes, one after another, sitting in the display case, bright red and lovely.

So you see, supermarkets and food markets really are not the same.

Supermarkets are clean, quiet and convenient, but markets are lively, fresh, and full of human warmth.

If you come to China, I really do suggest you visit a food market once. Even if you buy nothing at all, you should go and take a look.

Walk around, ask a question, listen, and you will find that this is what real Chinese life looks like.