So I'm going to show you one of my favorite place in my hometown which is the daily
grocery store where all the fresh veggies and meat and fishes are here
this is the first floor and this is making zong
Zhen: Are these reed leaves
Merchant: Yes, they are traditional flavor [best guess]
they're making zong zi here and we have a different fillings
this is the sticky rice
and they have a different fillings like red beans or dates or some are
straight-up this one I guess is a straight-up
Ha! I like how they fill that.
And in the market will also have some fresh fruit
and kind of homemade dessert places
I'm on mission every day together to the food here
so my stepmom always gave me very detailed instruction of which booths
to go to well who are the people that is kind of a reliable because I'm too
standing out not old enough to look experienced so today I'm gonna get some
um, oh look at all the tofu stuff
Zhen: What's this? Merchant: Duck blood
Zhen: How much? Merchant: 3 Yuan / jing (half kilo)
Zhen: Do you have soft tofu? Merchant: Yes, it's over there.
Zhen: Give me a block of tofu and duck blood
I'm getting this duck blood and some soft tofu you guys to myself and I'm
gonna use my phone to pay give me a sec okay I got some duck blood and some soft
tofu here now I'm going to keep walking towards the fish food according to the
instructions these... this is the one. Ok? We have differnt food here. This is my target today which is Dai Yu
Zhen: Do you have hard tailed fish? Fishmonger: Which one?
Zhen: Huh? What's the difference? Fishmonger: Same fish, different widths. This is 15, 13 for you.
Zhen: Ah. What about this one? Fishmonger: his is 30, 25 for you.
Fishmonger: This is 24 or 25, but 18 for you. I'm not asking high price here.
Zhen: So this one is 25? OK, wait a sec.
I'm going to double-check.
Okay I successfully picked these ones.
Those are wider ones I like those.
Zhen: Oh, Can you clean the guts?
so these are wider ones they're really delicious
these are narrow ones and this is the medium so they all have different prices
by double check I mean I checked with my stepmom make sure that this is the booth
that she always gets this stuff from people are reliable and make sure
these Dai Yu are the local ones. The local ones taste better the meat is more
tender it just tastes better so we don't want those from the far north
I mean the cold water ... cold ocean ones
and they also have these stuff and normally you will have flies here. Not a
concern ... to us at least. and shrimp... Those are sea stuff. That's why they are all
dead and we also have
♪♫♬Ta-ta-ta-daaaa♪♫♬
eels? are they eels? I don't know
and a small lobster river lobster they have special names that I forget
Phil told me before (Crayfish)
there are many other sea stuff that I cannot name them all
but something I used to love a lot it's those snails I kind of decided not
to get it because we usually get that in early summer which is like 10 days
earlier now they usually have little seeds in it I'm not sure if I'd like
it and I'm eager to finish my shopping on the second floor then decide all
those leisure fun stuff according to the instruction for this floor, I'm gonna go
right to the deep looking for those old ladies a those men who are selling stuff
those are local people and make sure all the veggies I have with mud and ah...so go
deep it's the simple instruction and see if I can get the stuff I want. Oh! Those
are the Hyacynth beans, some kind of a bean really nice hard to grow in Canada same
with this one I tried last year fail total fail it didn't grow taller than 5
centimeters I think but here is the natural climate for it
those are all fresh ... fresh veggies and most of them are plucked today but they
will have hard time selling them if they are not. Okay I'm gonna go shopping for a bit
okay let's see what I got today I got some ahhh (straining). so fresh onion it's a little bit
heavy cuz I got some ah, this thing it's very heavy I got some fresh onion
some green veggies home.Tong hao and a kind of Buk Choi. Different varieties and um... I think I
won't get more stuff because I just cannot carry more but everything just
looks very - oh! Did I get stuff with dirt? I think so
I think so. oh! and garlic I need garlic
so these are the pork stands I'm actually looking for some beef. I don't
know if I can um... I'm not sure if I can find them. They all look like like pig stuff
Zhen: This is all pork? where is the beef? Butcher: Over there.
okay so get some instructions seems to be in a back. I'm gonna see here is some beef and
a yellow beef. it's a kind of beef. I'll see how much it is
Zhen: Do you have beef shank? Butcher: This is it.
Zhen: This? This is beef shank?! Butcher: of course.
Butcher: See. it's beef shank. Zhen: Ohhhhh....
Zhen: Is there tendon inside? Butcher: no fascia on the outside, but it has tendon inside, looks like marble.
Zhen: yes, that's the type I want. How much is that? Butcher: 45 yuan / jin (500g)
Now I'm on the way home and I
just want to stop by and show you the Loquat tree. Now this is the season for the
loquat it's very sweet and juicy. I think it's just the climate is different but
here it's just those local loquat trees growing like almost everywhere in
the city and it doesn't need a much maintenance actually they just bear
so much fruit okay now I'm fully home and um... as usual
every time I come back I get a lesson from my stepmom of like the tofu I get
is the right booth for tofu but not on the right booth for duck blood the
better duck blood is upstairs somewhere somewhere. And um same with the beans I get
and they're supposed to give me free green onion but I didn't have those so
anyway that's just the experience I don't consider that as a critic[ism] but it's
very cute of how the locals - because I remember this when I was a kid my you
know my family is the grandparents they all do the same thing even when I was in
the market they were talking like I hear those people buying stuff saying don't
put too much mud but you know what they all love to have some mud on the veggies
so it's as a fresh a sign of fresh but they don't want too much mud so when the
seller is putting the veggies in the bag they're like
oh shake the mud off you're putting too much mud! It's weight! It's so heavy!
So it's very cute and the some of them start by "Mmm, this veggie is not from today..." or
it's not tender enough or stuff it's it's just a very cute
grocery shopping culture here that I actually really enjoy. I love going there
when I have time go there twice a day like once in the morning and once in
the afternoon because in the afternoon the hall the entrance will be filled
with different free stand booths and those people just pluck some veggies and sell
that right there and I found that's very cute. Some of them are really fresh
you're just a look at the leaves and they just look really plump and juicy
and the flavor is so different so ah... that's so interesting. and is sweltering hot
Oh hope those videos are not too frightening with the fishhead and all
those kind of stuff for you guys
these are the beans I got I don't know I never
I probably see that in the North America those are with shells so we still have
to peel that out and hopefully they are tender it's just a week here that you
can enjoy them the best texture and the week later they become old and just
doesn't taste good anymore okay the beans that I got are obviously
pretty old I kind of knew that the prime week has passed but I was like I
want to try it because I cannot get it anywhere else so this is the desires one
with barely any black line this is the getting they're kind of getting black
and this is like too old. Uh, edible we got to figure out other ways to eat it
but that's just what we want really tender juicy
flavors oh well missed that week...
okay now the fish are ready so I think I get the right one according to the expert
It's the head. The local fish have
smaller head. It means those are one of my favorite fish because their bones are
very easy to eat it I mean easy to pick out because they have the - they're pretty
regular just on the edge here get rid of the bone here and bone the other side
and the middle ones are like a rib so easy fish.
Local ugly onion