Gotta continue on what I have started.
The first place I wanted to go after seeing my parents was….. the grocery store. Yes, I know it’s silly but it’s the grocery store I miss the most. All the ready-to-eat cooked meats and vegetarian produce, the yogurts and diary products (yes, they are 100 times better than the American ones), the pickled dry fruits, and not to mention the sunflower seeds. Just standing between the isles and knowing that I can enjoy 99% of the foods here (vs. maybe 10% in an American grocery store) gives me such a warm and fuzzy right-at-home feeling. Plus exploring all the new products developed after I went abroad–I could spend two hours just in a neighborhood grocery store maybe one tenth of the size of a typical American grocery store. And I don’t need to buy much to actually eat–the smell and touch is all I need.
Now I remember how excited I was even to enter a Ranch 99 in LA. It combines the Chinese smell and the American size. But not quite in the smell department. Even that could make my heart pounding like I’ve just run a 3k race. Yes, I know this is embarrassing to admit, but right there, I sensed something that would not change for the rest of my life, no matter how westernized I become.
Back to Beijing, I could not resist but bought some tofu products. Those of you who’ve been to China know how much variety we have in tofu–dried, fried, pickled, frozen, and other processing I can’t even find English for. To us, tofu is like cheese to westerners. We simply cannot live without it. As much as I love cheese, tofu is where my heart is.
I AM home.