An Overdue Introduction

We asked you what you wanted to hear about...and you said Fu Mart!! So here it is, a long overdue introduction of the place we lovingly refer to as "Fu Mart."
Fu Mart is actually called "Da Run Fa" but it used to be "Da Fu Yuan" which I assume is where the Fu was derived from. It's actually RT Mart in English, but once we got hooked calling it Fu Mart, there was no turning back. Regardless of the name, Fu Mart is your basic Chinese Wal-Mart on a lesser scale.

As far as the lay out of the place, it's just like what you would expect a large grocery store would look like...

check out counters...

The major difference of course, is what they sell...
"fangbian mian" instead of Ramen noodles
TONS of yogurt instead of fresh milk (chinese love their yogurt)
pigs feet & whole chicken (including the head and feet) instead of sliced deli meat
small steamed buns instead of Mrs. Baird's wheat bread
Thai Rice, Small rice, Long Grain rice, Chinese rice, etc...instead of, well, Minute Rice
dead & live turtles instead of...I have no idea what those replace.

Anyhow, you get the point. LOTS of differences. But we can get cheese, butter, and when we're lucky, "fresh" milk. They even recently imported Pillsbury Chocolate Frosting. :) You just really never know what they'll get next! :) When they do import stuff, they put it here, The Foreign Foods Aisle.

One of the things we love about Fu Mart is the "decor." They love to label things all over the store in English. Above the chips and crackers is a sign labeled "Creakears." mmmm creakears.
And above the fresh fish tanks is a huge Nemo poster. I don't know...I guess they think it's appropriate.

But by far the thing we love MOST about Fu Mart is the prices. We can get really great fresh veggies...
for a fraction of the cost in America. Our last purchase: onions. A pound of onions at Fu Mart? 14 cents.
Meat is really cheap too. We like to buy the most expensive beef, ground tenderloin, which we get for about 2 dollars a pound. Chicken breasts are extremely cheap too because Chinese people don't like the good part (ie chicken breasts) of the chicken. They prefer the feet, necks, wings, etc...so we cook with chicken a lot.
AND if you are a big rice eater (like the people we're daily surrounded by) then this is the place you want to go for rice (although sadly, the price of rice has doubled in the last three months...causing riots in some countries). Note in this picture below that above the rice there is a price of 1.22 Yuan. That's about 17 cents a pound.

Fu Mart may be the only place on earth that you can see people with a grocery cart filled to the max with just rice. They have these huge barrels in the store and you just scoop out as much as you want. Imagine 5 Wal-Mart bags full of rice and you'll get the idea of how Chinese people buy their rice. They think I'm weird when I want to buy about 1/2 a pound. (that will last us several months)
Fu Mart trips take a lot longer now than they used to. About every other person that we pass in the store likes to stop us to play with Eden.

That makes for a long hour of grocery shopping.

And finally...we would be remiss if we didn't mention the egg line. This is a phenomenon that no matter how long I live in China I will never understand. We buy previously packaged eggs in plasic cartons (similar to the states only not refrigerated). Super easy. Walk up, pick up the packaged eggs, and you're good to go. But for some really strange reason, most locals here prefer to stand in a sometimes ridiculously long line so that they can buy eggs that are a little cheaper. And when I say cheaper, I mean like 2 cents cheaper. It baffles me. And on one of the worst days that I've ever seen it, we happened to have the camera. :)

So I hope you feel more acquainted with the place. As much as I can describe it though, you just won't get a good feel for Fu Mart unless you come see it for yourself!