Monday 11 March 2013

China from China: Why Memory Lane Leads to the Chinese Supermarket



I have always loved visiting Chinese supermarkets. If I never visited another Asda, Sainsbury's or Tesco again it would be too soon (can just about tolerate Aldi), but for me, Chinese supermarkets are an experience worlds apart from the drudgery of the Western weekly shop.

I used to live in Chorley in Lancashire until I was nine years-old, and I can vividly recall many occasions where my dad would take me and my brother into Manchester's Chinatown on a Saturday. I remember nothing about Manchester city centre but Chinatown, the largest in the country. There my dad had a favourite supermarket - which was actually a smallish shop packed to the rafters - and above the shop was the same family's popular restaurant. This shop sold delicious dumplings and meats, fresh vegetables and dried beans, spices and curries. It stocked tins with labels I couldn't make out, more exotic teas than I had ever seen in my life, and noodles. So many noodles! 

I quickly learned where to locate my dad's store cupboard items. To this day he remains a talented and enthusiastic cook, and while we enjoyed the odd takeaway as much as any other family when I was growing up, his home cooked chinese was a real occasion. It was my job to set the table every evening, and Chinese meals warranted tealight table warmers, chopsticks and knives and forks, and a kitchen roll plonked elegantly in the middle for sticky fingers. Once I even 'borrowed' four mismatched flannels from the bathroom, plopped them in bowls of warm water and proudly presented them to my family after the spare ribs...


When I moved to Leeds as a student it was a comfort to me to locate the Chinese supermarket as quickly as possible, buying a huge tub of black beans which would last my three years. That shop has since moved to shiny new premises, but I thought the original shop I found behind Leeds Markets had far more character and certainly a warmer welcome (and cheaper prices too). 

These days the grown up me has shifted focus a little on visits to Sheffield's Chinese supermarket. You see, I have discovered the joys of crockery. These bowls, 75p each plus VAT, are exotic with a look not out of place among my great grandmother's Chinese tea set, so into my basket they leapt. A delightful spoon with a fish... 80p.




...And the tea section is very alluring these days. Gunpowder Tea? Seven year-old me would have loved the idea of such a drink, surely sipped by Chinese pirates. What if I explode!




So home I come with bargainous treasures, and to a rather different sort of afternoon tea (for which I still lay the table). Great Grandmother's china, (complete with rather more delicate china spoons than my delightful fish, but still), gunpowder tea, and maybe even a fortune cookie, because I haven't grown out of those either.


My fortune cookie worked so well, I won the Chinese lottery! Or maybe I bought a pack of lucky paper money for 50p, thinking it would make a fun addition to my smash book or a #PostCircle letter.


It's funny how even now, I tend to visit Chinese supermarkets with my dad. Just me and him. And even now I leave him to choose his store cupboard favourites. I offer no opinion, as I might in Asda. I simply breathe in the familiar smell of aniseed, and follow my feet to look at the pretty teapots, smiling to myself as I think of the scrumptious childhood favourites in store that evening.

Do you use Chinese supermarkets? 



19 comments:

  1. Oh wow, are you in my mind? Yesterday we went for a walk to The Hague and we ended up (like we almost always do) at the Chinese / Asian supermarket. It is always a joy to go there, specially because, weird as it may sound, I can find many ingredients that are similar or analogous to ingredients that I would use for Mexican cooking (think chili varieties, spicy sauces, beans, corn flour). Last month, for the Snake year we made dim sums at home (and I got one of those bamboo steamers for almost nothing) so it looked all fancy. Their pottery is beautiful as well (Delft pottery was actually inspired on Chinese designs). I love discovering new flavors and twists and like you say it's like being worlds apart.

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    1. I know exactly what you mean about finding similar ingredients for other cultures. Having lived with several people of other nationalities at university I noticed they often did the same. I love the bamboo steamers - such a bargain! x

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  2. I love Chinese supermarkets! They're so colourful and exciting compared to other shops and they're excellent for vegetarian supplies. I'm especially fond of those amazing little chewy coconut sweets they sell. When I was little, my Chinese friends would bring me back a stash from Chinese school every Sunday and I still love them now. I still have no idea what they're called, though!

    I only usually buy food but you've definitely inspired me to check out the crockery next time.

    Jenny
    x

    P.S. I feel duty-bound as a Merseysider to point out that Manchester may have the largest Chinatown in the UK, but Liverpool has the oldest in Europe :-)

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    1. Chewy coconut sweets?! They sound rather scrumptious. I clearly haven't spent enough time in the confectionery section.

      Kudos to Liverpool for the oldest Chinatown in Europe! x

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  3. I love visiting Chinese supermarkets, especially looking at all the wonderful ingredients. Love the smell too! Paper money looks interesting.
    Liz @ Shortbread & Ginger

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  4. hi there...love ur crockery.yes,i live in footscray, a suburb in melbourne with a huge vietnamese,chinese and general sth east asian population ..i am so lucky,we have so many wonderful asian groceries (and restaurants!) and not many 'western' style stores at all..a trip down to my local shopping strip us like being overseas!mezz

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    1. Lucky you! I think some of us in here in the UK could do with being pushed into trying new ways of cooking, but our mainstream supermarkets provide token selections of ingredients from other cultures, though I suppose even this is a big improvement even on ten years ago. x

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  5. We have a couple of amazing chinese supermarkets near us, and I love them. Sometimes I'll just pop in for a bag of frozen Edamame beans, or even better, the squeezy bottles of hoi sin we discovered in the Vicar lane store! The boyf and I will spend hrs in them though if he's given the opportunity.
    Pretty much all international supermarkets are amazing though, we joke that we live in the international supermarket quarter as there are so many, but I love it - so much choice! x

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    1. Sheffield chinese supermarkets rock, especially the Vicar Lane one! x

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  6. Nottingham has a fairly good Chinese supermarket and that is where I first discovered rose tea! Loved this post, Anna. It always makes me smile to read about the little traditions other families have - they're the stuff of joy :-)

    Jem xXx

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    1. I haven't had a chance to visit the Nottingham one, so must add that to my list for the next time I'm there! x

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  7. We still have one of those bowls left from when we visited Birmingham's Chinatown many years ago - I love the way you can hold them up and the light shines through. As a student we had an abundance of Asian supermarkets where we used to buy large sacks of pulses. We would then have to sort out the bits of stone from the beans, store in large sweetie jars and soak for what seemed like days before cooking. Very cheap though at a time when the nice convenient tinned ones weren't as readily available. I'm still fascinated by the packages of dried fish and bizarre vegetables - all very intriguing. Great post x Jane

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    1. The pulses are still so cheap, aren't they? I should make more use of them. x

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  8. When I was living in China I kept craving things like spaghetti and chip shop chips just because I couldn't get them. These days setting foot in the Asian supermarket makes me "Chinasick" for all the things I ate out there. Also, I wish I'd brought back far more crockery, fabric and writing paper. Tianjin was a craft supply goldmine! Xx

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    1. What you mean to say, Clare, is why didn't you bring your dear friend Anna more crockery, fabric and writing paper! Missed opportunity there, sigh. x

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  9. I love Chinese supermarkets, we are very lucky in Cambridge to have a few although I don't visit them often enough. They're great for vegan ingredients and the crockery is beautiful :)

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  10. what happened to your pages??

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