Chinese Meat Market

The “butcher/deli” section in a market in Shanghai.
Shopping for ingredients in Shanghai is an adventure of sights and smells. We wandered in a large, grey, hulking building and found each section of the two floors packed with a huge variety of food in its virgin state (more or less). Nothing is nicely packaged here, there is no celophane wrap or styrofoam (Chris, does this ordinary word conjure up any memories?) and everything sits out in the open. You can tell things are pretty fresh, because the air is balmy, and there is no stench of decay, just the odors of vegetation, spices, blood, dirt, slime, and slowly decomposing generic cellular material.
Hah, people in California think that shopping at Trader Joe’s is supporting struggling co-ops and individual farmers and craftsmen while supporting the organic farmers of the world. Shop at a real Chinese market and you know that your cabbage was Certified Organically Grown with the contents from that farmer’s outhouse. It don’t get much more organic than that. There are no processed foods here. And you won’t be asked “paper or plastic?”- they will simply take a sheaf of yesterday’s newspaper and reuse it to tie up your package of meat. If you don’t bring something to put your purchases in, then you will carry them in your arms.
What kind of “meat” is that, do you ask? Dunno for sure, but it sure looks like it would make for some kick-ass barbecue. If you really want to eat disgusting meat, I don’t think it can get any more mysterious, unsanitary, or unidentifiable than the “meat” found in the common taco of Tijuana. Tu quieres carne de gato y perro?