Lotus Flower

Karen Merzenich is a former pastry chef from San Francisco. She writes (mostly) about recipes and travel at Off The (Meat)Hook. You can also follow her on Facebook and Twitter (@offthemeathook)

Farmers Market Update: Shanghai

by Karen Merzenich

I recently returned from a week’s vacation in Shanghai, and the highlight of the trip was a visit to Shanghai’s Wet Market on Lianhua Lu in the Minhang District. In a dizzying array of open-air lanes and buildings, the Wet Market serves both wholesale and retail customers.

In a fast-growing city of nearly 25 million people, it’s not surprising that the market remains open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Wet Market

If you want to visit the Wet Market, I highly recommend going with a guide who can introduce you to the vendors and answer all of your questions. As far as I know, the only guide service that does this kind of in-depth tour is Shanghai Pathways. It’s an unforgettable trip to an amazing market! I peppered our guide Janny with questions about what was in season, where the produce came from, the lives of the vendors and farmers, and more.

Wet Market

July in China means: watermelons! They are everywhere, and they are delicious. The Chinese watermelons are a round variety about the size of a volleyball. They are juicy and succulent and they sure taste great when it’s 100 degrees out.

Watermelons

The summer humidity brings a wealth of fresh mushrooms, including these monkey mushrooms, which were described as having “a mushroom inside a mushroom.”

Monkey Mushrooms

The first peaches and nectarines of summer are here too, as well as multiple varieties of corn. In China the yellow corn tends to be sweet, but the white corn has larger kernels and is referred to as glutinous corn.

Peaches and Glutinous Corn

An important lens to use when shopping for food in China is that of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) teachings–as most Chinese people believe that certain foods are beneficial to eat during certain times of the year for health reasons. For example, a popular Chinese summer food is winter melon, which is thought to cool you down in a hot summer. These winter melons were gargantuan!

Winter Melon

Another cooling summer vegetable is soft cucumber, a spiny, delicate cucumber. Wrinkly, knobby bitter melon fits the bill for refreshing the body in the summer heat as well.

Soft Cucumber and Bitter Melon

While lotus root (also a cooling food) is available year-round, the twisty, knobby part of the lotus appears only around the time the lotus flowers bloom, which is now. (I couldn’t find great information on this, but it seems like the thing we call “lotus root” is really the lotus rhizome, and this thing might actually be part of the root, but I’m not sure at all so don’t hold me to that.)

Lotus Shoot

All manner of rice and beans are also available at this market. Rows of bags and stacks of sacks offer whatever legume or grain your heart desires.

Rice, Grains, Beans

You can also find all sorts of noodles. A Shanghainese special is noodles made from rice and green beans, so some have a light green color.

Noodles

How about some spice and seasonings? Fresh ginger is available year round, and vendors place fans directly on piles of ginger to dry them out and keep them from molding in the humidity. You can see huge bags of peeled garlic cloves for sale too.

Ginger

Chili peppers are ground and sorted to varying consistency and size, per the customer’s request.

Chili Peppers

Of course, it wouldn’t be a Wet Market without some meat, fish, and other interesting delicacies. If you are squeamish about meat and butchery, now might be a good time to scroll to the end. I’ll start with something reasonably tame, sides of pork on big iron hooks. You can see the marbled belly pieces, ready for making bacon, on the left.

Sides of Pork

If you want a century egg, ask the vendor to rinse off the ash, clay, lime, and mud mixture so you can break into that pungent dark green yolk. (I was too wimpy to try one!)

Century Eggs

Fresh frogs, snakes, and eels are on display; make a purchase and they’ll be butchered for you to order. (The frogs are in the mesh bag so they don’t jump away, and the snakes are tied up in the green bag, thank goodness.)

Frogs, Snakes and Eels

If you’re not quite up to eel or frog just yet, you can try beltfish, a popular Chinese seafood staple.

Belt Fish

If you’re after hens or roosters, you can peruse the quality of the show bird on top of the cage before picking one out to be beheaded for your soup pot.

Rooster

But good luck getting this teenager’s attention to skin you a fresh quail–he seems pretty engaged in his video game!

Quail Seller

Getting the purchases back to your home or restaurant means loading up your bicycle cart, scooter, or rickshaw.

Bicycle Cart

If you’ve left your scooter for too long, you might find one of the many alley cats that roams the market seeking scraps has taken over.

Cat on Scooter

Market work can be exhausting. Sometimes you just need a break from selling jellyfish all day.

Napping Woman

If you’re in Shanghai and you’d like to visit the market: contact Janny at Shanghai Pathways.

Would you like to share your farmers market with Summer Tomato readers? Find out more.

For The Love of Food

Welcome to Friday’s For The Love of Food, Summer Tomato’s weekly link roundup.

Wow, please don’t skip your reading this week. There are two excellent stories about the dangers of food imports, an exposé on the bogus “nitrate free” food labels and a fascinating tale of finding zen in the kitchen. All that and more on my top 10 food and health links this week.

Want to see all my favorite links? Be sure to follow me on on Digg. I also share links on Twitter (@summertomato) and the Summer Tomato Facebook fan page. I’m very active on all these sites and would love to connect with you.

Links of the week

• What’s Inside the Bun? <<Awesome piece about the bogus “nitrate free” claims on some processed meat products. (New York Times)
• China’s Bizarre Food ‘Safety’ Scene, and Our Own <<Another must-read about the horrific crimes going on in the Chinese food supply, and why we aren’t exactly doing much better in the US. (New York Times)
• Banned chemicals found in tons of imported fish <<BS of the week for the lack of adequate regulation, and proof that the above story was not scaremongering. Though I’m horrified by this, I’m not particularly surprised. The government is clearly not doing enough to protect you, so I’d recommend sticking to domestic wild seafood as best you can. (The Tennessean)
• Is Your Meat Habit Giving You Diabetes? <<The title is misleading, but this is actually a fascinating article about the dangers of industrially farmed animals. (Mother Jones)
• Media reports of new hypertension study should be taken with a grain of salt <<The latest salt news is very much in agreement with the discussion we had last week on Salt: How bad is it really? (Spoonful of Medicine)
• Natural, local, processed? What do these labels really mean? <<Nice, simple tutorial on some of the more confusing food labels. (Nutrition Over Easy)
• Eating at restaurants boosts risk of obesity, experts warn <<Umm, yep. Indulge with caution. (Los Angeles Times)
• Restaurant calories – a cautionary tale <<A partial explanation of why the above story about restaurants is true. (Weighty Matters)
• Need more Zen in your life? Learn how to chop <<A benefit of cooking you probably haven’t considered: mental calmness. (The Globe and Mail)
• Sichuan Eggplant <<Eggplant season is starting and this looks delicious. I’d probably leave out the sugar (or at least half it), but that’s just me. (Simply Recipes)

What inspired you this week?

For The Love of Food

Welcome to Friday’s For The Love of Food, Summer Tomato’s weekly link roundup.

I love Marion Nestle calling out the food industry on their ridiculous health claims, the emphasis on food culture in health and the launch of the new and awesome Gilt Taste.

Want to see all my favorite links? Be sure to follow me on on Digg. I also share links at Twitter (@summertomato) and the Summer Tomato Facebook fan page. I’m very active on all these sites and would love to connect with you.

Links of the week

• Foods With Benefits? Oh please. <<Excellent, must read article about the BS the food industry is trying to pull on you. (Food Politics)
• The Mediterranean Diet: It’s Not Just About Food <<It’s about culture. (Huffington Post)
• Localizing Fruit, Vegetable Consumption Doesn’t Necessarily Solve Environmental, Health Issues, Study Suggests <Once again, if you read this carefully you’ll see it’s a problem with food culture, not a problem with the definition of “local.” (ScienceDaily)
• Fine Food and Fat: Are Chefs to Blame for Obesity? <<BS of the week. People are clearly confused about the causes and effects of obesity. If we have any chance of coming out of this health crisis, we’re going to have to embrace the food movement and reinstate a food culture based on quality over quantity. (Time)
• Sitting is Killing You <<We just talked about sedentary behavior last week, but here it is in visual form. (Obesity Panacea)
• Dairy Consumption Does Not Elevate Heart-Attack Risk, Study Suggests <<Not even with all that “evil” saturated fat. Skeptics: this was funded by the NIH, not the Dairy Council. (ScienceDaily)
• Exploding watermelons put spotlight on Chinese farming practices <<Still need reasons to avoid Chinese food imports? Eek. (Guardian)
• Eat a Protein-Rich Breakfast to Reduce Food Cravings, Prevent Overeating Later, Researcher Finds <<My two favorite scientific fields (nutrition and neuroscience) united at last. (ScienceDaily)
• People with diabetes more likely to get cancer <<In case you didn’t know, there are many reasons to avoid metabolic syndrome. (Medline)
• Skillet Chicken with Green Onions and Ramps <<I’m totally inspired by the new Gilt Taste site, and I’m going to try this recipe ASAP. Check out their anti-mission statement for a dose of inspiration. (Gilt Taste)

What inspired you this week?

For The Love of Food

Welcome to Friday’s For The Love of Food, Summer Tomato’s weekly link roundup.

Why you probably don’t need to worry about your love of seafood causing prostate cancer, how health conscious people are tricked by clever packaging, and why I still won’t eat anything from China.

Want to see all my favorite links? Be sure to follow me on on Digg. I also share links at Twitter (@summertomato) and the Summer Tomato Facebook fan page. I’m very active on all these sites and would love to connect with you.

Links of the week

• Is Fish Oil Linked to Prostate Cancer? <<A few people emailed me in a panic this week about new data on fish consumption and prostate cancer. Here the lovely Denise Minger describes why there’s no need to worry just yet. (Mark’s Daily Apple)
• Is Coconut Water Worth It? <<I love Dr. Weil’s take on the new coconut water trend. Anyone who has tasted the real stuff knows the difference. (Dr. Weil’s Blog)
• Big Sugar Sues Big Corn Over “Corn Sugar” Ad Campaign For HFCS <<BS of the week. Two big producers of dangerous foods are battling in court to see who deserves to trick you the most. Don’t fall for it. (Consumerist)
• Dieters can get out of ‘healthy’ food trap by checking ingredients <<I mentioned recently in office hours that the only thing I look at on packaging is the ingredients. Looks like that’s a pretty good idea. (Los Angeles Times)
• Interval Training and Healthy Eating Is Solution to Obesity, Study Shows <<Encouraging news about lifestyle approaches to weight loss. (Science Daily)
• Eating Healthily for $3 a Day <<It’s a common misunderstanding that healthy eating is expensive. It certainly doesn’t have to be. (Mike Turitzin)
• Why China Struggles with Food Safety <<I don’t eat anything from China, and I won’t until they get these issues resolved. (Wall Street Journal)
• Coca-Cola not ready to drop bisphenol A in can linings <<Yep, it’s even in Diet Coke cans. (The Vancouver Sun)
• Fish Livers Contain Beneficial Fatty Acids, Study Suggests <<Hooray for organ meats! (Science Daily)
• Chicken Piccata <<This looks so good I think I’m going to have to make it this weekend. Yum! (Chez Us)

What inspired you this week?

For The Love of Food

Welcome to Friday’s For The Love of Food, Summer Tomato’s weekly link roundup.

This week around the web I found interesting tips on how to avoid cellphone radiation (it’s real), BPA and mad cow disease. Also smaller packages give you less for more, and introducing the bacon alarm clock. Yes, you read that right.

I read many more wonderful articles than I post here each week. If you’d like to see more or just don’t want to wait until Friday, be sure to follow me on Twitter (@summertomato) or the Summer Tomato Facebook fan page. For a complete list of my favorite stories check out my links on Digg. I’m very active on all these sites and would love to connect with you.

Links of the week

• Cellphone Radiation May Alter Your Brain. Let’s Talk. <<I actually learned a lot from this article, like that the most radiation comes when your phone makes contact with the tower at the beginning of the call. (New York Times)
• What’s up with food dyes and hyperactivity? <<There are a bunch of articles about this, but I like Marion Nestle’s point that the only purpose of these dyes is to sell junk food. (Food Politics)
• Make Yourself a Quesadilla <<BS of the week. The New York Times just dropped a notch in credibility for me. I don’t care if you put broccoli in it (who does that anyway?), a quesadilla isn’t a “healthy snack”.
• Weight-Loss Supplement Has Teensy Potential Side Effect: You Might *Get Mad Cow Disease*! <<One more reason to avoid diet pills and the like. (Discover Blogs)
• Wake n’ Bacon is most delicious alarm clock ever <<Now that’s innovation! (DViCE)
• Food Inflation Kept Hidden in Tinier Bags <<It seems portions are getting smaller whether we like it or not. This makes me perversely happy. (New York Times)
• Poor Eating Habits May Lead to Anemia in Women <<This shouldn’t be too surprising, but make sure it doesn’t happen to you. (Business Week)
• 6 Steps to Avoiding BPA in Your Daily Life <<Helpful advice. I’ve found it pretty easy to avoid BPA, how about you? (Fast Company)
• Pretty Patterns That Camouflage a Poison <<Apparently it is not just food from China you should avoid. Time to chuck those decorative plates as well, unless you enjoy eating lead. (New York Times)
• Swiss Chard with Olives <<Chard is in season! Enjoy it! (Simply Recipes)

What inspired you this week?