How much does it cost? - Food shopping

When I looked in our fridge this morning I found a couple of tomatos, some cheese and half a bottle of wine. This is the result of Paul beeing away for 10 days and me living of his home cooked food stored in the freezer as well as some nice lunches out. So I thought I better go shopping and take you with me this time to show you that China is not all about cheap deals.

To get food we basically have three different choices here in Shangai:

1) Wet markets: It is called wet market because the farmers sell their fresh products here - and probably because the floors are mostly very wet from various fluids.
I love going to those market (always making sure not to wear my flip flops). But the challenge is still that I don´t know most of the stuff sold there. And with the recent news of exploding watermelons (because they were overfirtilized) I was a little put off for a while.

2) Superstores, e.g. Carrefour, Tesco : They are massive stores where you can buy anything from food to clothes to homeware and bikes. Pretty similar to how you know them in Europe. The German equivalent would be "Real". You can get all the Chinese products as well as Western stuff. The challenge here is that you need good ellbows and and strong nerves because of the amount of  people, mad people and the noise which is extremly offputting. We choose to go there as little as possible and it is worth a documentary on.

3) Expat supermarkets: These are gorcery stores which stock most of the Imported goodies you don´t want to miss and have a good selection of organic food. You wonder if there is a challanging factor?

Follow me to Olé- our favorite super market in Xujahui:

Olé is based in a huge shopping mall and one of the nicest supermarkets we have come across in Shanghai. All the products look immaculate and they always play some relaxing jazz music. This  makes a nice change to blasting hardcore techno music and shopping assistants shouting at us with their megaphones in Carrefour. Having space and peace - this alone is worth a little premium. Congrats to the marketing team of Olé - well done!

However even Olé it is still a Chinese supermarket. Here some examples:
Onions and potatos  are always packed in set´s of two or three and you can buy a whole mushroom tree:

Now let´s take a look at the dairy product section and hold on to your wallet!

If you devide the price by 10 you get the estimate EUR price:

e.g.:Philadelphia ~ 3,50 EUR (Germany 1,30 EUR)

Mascapone Cheese - a real luxury:

Actually - any cheese. Here grated Cheese:

Let´s move on to the Cereal and Bread Section:

 Somehow the Risotto got mixed in with the Cereal..

Well to be honest it does not look that much different to muesli?

Now here one of my favorite rip offs: Kneip Bathoil.

In Germany we pay about 5 EUR (50 RMB) for one bottle.

Good that I have a 6 month supply with me!

Should have bought a six month supply of that,too:

But if you think this can not be topped:

Here it is - the ultimative Expat treat:

Yes, you have seen this right: about 2000 EUR for a bottle of??

So, is your wallet in shock?  Ours was at first, too.

The trick to save money is to look a little deeper into Asian food.

Sushi for example is a great deal here (and was already before Fukushima :-) )

This  lunch set box  is only 25 RMB:

At the end I gave the 200 EUR bottle of wine a miss,

 but still managed to spend 370RMB on my shopping:

I need to start cooking now and hope you enjoyed our shopping trip.

Next time we go crazy and I take you shopping to Carrefour!

Zaijane!