Grand Asia Market

(3/22 Outside and inside Grand Asia Market, Raleigh)

Whether you’re looking for adventure or thrifty groceries, Grand Asia Market in Raleigh  is your ticket.

Basic goods such as tomatoes, carrots, and apples come cheap, but so do more exotic fruits and vegetables.

Walking through the produce section is a veritable culinary and cultural safari. Grab a bag of bok choy or garlic sprouts for less than a dollar; the selection of wild mushrooms puts Whole Foods to shame.

If you’re not in the mood to shop, a hot bar of Asian foods should keep you company. The same section of the store boasts homemade tofu, roasted meats, steamed pork buns, dim sum, and an impressive Hong Kong-style bakery with homemade breads and pastries.

(3/22 All your ducks in a row)

Fish mongers provide a wide selection of fresh fish and shrimp, as well as other hard-to-find forms of seafood. (Check out the squid and various bi-valves.)

(3/22 Fresh seafood)

Friendly store attendants demonstrate how buns, candy, and other food are made. Be sure to stop by one of these demonstrations, because well, there will probably be free food.

(3/22 A man makes candy and gives out samples)

Aisles and aisles of snacks, condiments, and other foods imported from China, Taiwan, India, Malaysia, and other countries fill the heart of the store. You may get tired, but you may never get bored. And if you do become tired, grab a bubble tea and join in with the workers on a conversation about Taiwanese politics.

You might just make a new friend….

(3.22 Catfish mouths on display)

Today the sky is Pan-Coalition Blue

We are all with the blue, blue sky, said a bakery assistant at Grand Asia Market in reference to today’s victories for the Pan-Blue Coalition in Taiwan.

3/22: A bakery attendant looks on as customers discuss election results.)

“我们不说，不说，” said another (Translation: “We won’t talk about it” or “We don’t talk about it”) highlighting the continuing tension concerning the governance of Taiwan.

Ma Ying-Jeou won the Taiwanese election today with 58% of the votes. His victory marks Taiwan’s return to the hands of the Kuomintang (KMT) party, which supports the current status quo with China.

The win will smooth over Chinese-Taiwan relations for a while – reunification won’t be an issue anytime soon – but I wonder how the return of the Nationalist party to Taiwan will affect the rest of the world.

More on Grand Asia Market soon…

Shanghai down the Highway

Do midterms have you stuck inside of a mobile with the Carolina blues again? Shake off your stasis with this exotic destination:

Ok ok, so maybe it doesn’t look so exotic. To tell you the truth, it’s in Durham.

However , No. 1 Panda House is the closest you will get to Shanghai within twenty minutes.

The big trouble with this little China? It’s lost in translation! You see, the Chinese name of the restaurant, 上海人家，literally means “Shanghai Peoples’ Home”. This has nothing to do with pandas, much less the number one panda.

Despite it’s generic Chinese take-out disguise, the restaurant’s Shanghai dishes and snacks are both authentic and delicious.

Try the pan fried pork buns:

The dough is fluffy while still retaining a good chew-factor, and becomes creamy where the bun meets the juicy pork filling. The bottoms are fried to a cracker-like consistency, and chopped green onions are sprinkled on top.

I would even go so far as to say that these will thoroughly sate your cravings for the chewy, crunchy, soft, and creamy…

For more delicious and authentic dishes from No. 1 Panda House, click on any of these pictures for a tantalizing slideshow of down home Shanghainese cooking:

China in Your Eyes

China is a peculiar place and Beijing, at the heart of it all.

“Curiouser and curiouser,” Alice might say, had she had fallen into this wonderland. And in many ways, she would be right.

Skyscrapers rise up through winding hutongs. Street vendors sell traditional Chinese snacks next to McDonalds and KFC.

A few years ago, The Forbidden City allowed a Starbucks within the imperial palace’s walls. (Fortunately, the Starbucks closed last year after a Chinese news anchor complained about the coffee shop in his blog.)

Beijing is pulled back and forth constantly by old and new, by growth and undoing, by flaws and innovation. This balancing act defines the city’s rich, and often quirky, dynamics.

As a tribute to these dynmamics, TIME photographer Kadir van Lohuizen captured a brilliant set of images in a photo essay, “Beijing’s Changing Skyline”:

(Click on the thumbnails to see the set)

Inspired? There’s good news.

A creative photo & essay contest titled “China in My Eyes” was announced to UNC-Chapel Hill english majors and minors earlier this week. And since the trees in Wonderland have ears, you get to hear about it too.

The contest accepts entries from all North American undergraduates. The grand prize is a free two-week trip to Beijing with the opportunity to work as 2008 Beijing Olympics volunteers , or a new Lenovo laptop.

Also, by participating in a survey on the website, one is automatically entered into a raffle to win free round-trip tickets to China, as well as other souvenirs from the Beijing Olympics.

For more information, visit the competition website.

And those free round-trip tickets sound pretty wonderful, especially to those of you who applied to study abroad in Beijing this summer. (PS: Your application is due today!)

Happy Chinese New Year 新年快乐！

According to the Chinese lunar calendar, Thursday marks the beginning of the Year of the Rat. China celebrates its new year with fireworks, musical performances – and most importantly- food.

“When I was growing up, that’s the only time I would have actual meat…actual anything,” said Wang Jimin, a teaching associate at The University of North Carolina. He explained that during his childhood, the only way to buy food was with ration cards. Chinese New Year was the only time many people could afford scarce goods such as meat and candy.

These sorts of indulgences make the holiday a time of great happiness, however, it can also be a source of grief, said Wang. The Chinese have a strong cultural obligation to spend the holiday with their families.

“Once, I stood in a train for eight hours [to get home]. The train was so packed, I couldn’t even go to the bathroom. You learn to eat a lot of food and drink very little water,” Wang said. “I think you all are not strong – or skilled enough – to even get on one of these trains”

Trains and other forms of transportation are even more troublesome this year because of weather. The recent snowstorms in China have been disastrous for the country. At least 60 people have died, and many will not be able to return home for the Lunar New Year holiday.

It also doesn’t help that the Chinese government sets limitations on tradition and celebration. They have attempted since 1912 to encourage people to celebrate the Gregorian New Year.

Government trials and snowstorms, however, have not succeeded in shifting the holiday’s true focus: family.

There is a very famous verse from Chinese poem about holidays, Wang said. Roughly translated, the verse suggests that holidays spent with one’s family are wonderful, but they make being away from family endlessly difficult.

And that is something everyone, everywhere, anytime can understand.

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Celebrate in the Triangle:

1. Make New Year’s Sticky Rice Cake (Nian Gao): Recipe

2. Attend the Chinese New Year’s gala in Memorial Hall on Sunday from 2:30-5:30 p.m.

3. Red Palace in Raleigh, the Triangle’s best Chinese restaurant (according to Greg Cox of the News & Observer) is offering a 10-person, 10-dish Chinese New Year’s spread for $188. For about $20 a person, you and your friends can feast on tea-smoked duck, walnut shrimp, sizzling black pepper beef and many other delicacies.

4. Go see the very flexible New Shanghai Circus in Durham on Saturday or Sunday night.

5. Karaoke to Lao Shu Ai Da Mi, 老鼠爱大米 (Translation: I Love You Like Mice Love Rice)