Cover your eyes, food-curious readers. We discovered a locals-oriented food market in Chengdu, China. Some of our discoveries are not pretty.
Crab claws, I presume.
During our 12-day tour of this fascinating country, Adventures by Disney took us only to restaurants that met the company's high standards for food safety. On our own, we uncovered places where American staples like temperature control, hand-cleaning and keeping raw foods off the dirty street aren't priorities. Here's a photo tour.
Curiousities at a food market in Chengdu, China
This happy lady has a curtain of raw, skinned animal flesh hanging in front of her face and over her unwashed scale. The meats are dangling from metal hooks, or so it seems. I'd like to note that we came upon this market late on a hot, humid day, meaning these choice cuts had probably been (literally) hanging around for several hours.
More of same, different vendor. Note the dried blood on the white tiles.
This little piggy went to market ...
This is the least appealing photo, for sure, and the most intriguing. These animal innards were maybe a half-inch above the ground outside the vendor's kiosk. Once again, dried blood, plus other dirt, can be seen in abundance.
I thought I'd reward you with a look at all these beautiful fresh vegetables at a produce kiosk.
We haven't talked about seafood yet. One vendor displayed two types of turtles.
Crabs
Any guesses? Please let me know what kind of creature this is.
A video that sums up the random food market in Chengdu, China
As we were leaving late on this steamy day, we came across a man standing on top of a big truck.
Using a long stick with a rope basket at the end, he scooped batch after batch of what appear to be small sharks out of three containers at the top of the truck. He dumped each batch into plastic containers. Men were lined up to receive the bounty. Each one threw a few onto the street and into a discard basket, then left with a full basket of choice items when done. I assume these men were retailers or restaurant cooks. Watch the squiggling in action.
That's it, merry food voyeurs. Now you know why I so appreciated Adventures by Disney's sophisticated precautions.
Rona