Every country has its pickled items. I ran across this at a friend’s house and thought the jar was really curious so I asked about it.

It turns out that this is a jar of pickled garlic. To prevent the smell from inundating the apartment, it has its own “water seal”. Essentially, the lid is an

[Continue reading Chinese Water-sealed Canning Jar]

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Looks great doesn’t it? Don’t take a bite. It’s fake. All of it. Dozens of well lit displays of finely crafted dishes and plastic ingredients.

Actually, for expats like myself, it’s a great way to order food. Many times when I’m reading menus I’m trying to figure out what a dish named “Peacock Chases the Red

[Continue reading Looks Good Enough to Eat]

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Every country has its share of unnecessary kitchen gadgets and China is no exception. We stumbled upon this “dumpling press” when walking through a small alley.

It makes perfectly folded Chinese dumplings. That’s all.

Yet, it’s strangely appealing in a 2am “as seen on TV” kind of way.

In this case, a 2pm “as seen in an alley”.

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We bought our stroller off Taobao.com which is sort of like the Chinese version of eBay… sort of. The fun thing about buying on Taobao is that sometimes bonus items come with the original purchase. We received some absolutely fabulous bonus items this time around!

Yes. An ear-pick with a flashlight. So that your loved

[Continue reading Flashlight Earpick]

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04.12.2007
When Schäfer was 4.5 months old, we decided to buy a stroller because the vegetable market was over a 1 mile round-trip and it was difficult to manage Schäfer in the sling, carrying veggies and oftentimes an umbrella.

A stroller seemed like the easiest solution. At the time, I think we paid about 230rmb = $30

[Continue reading The Case of the Missing MacLaren: Strollers Old and New]

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One aspect of living in China that we really enjoy is how easy it is to recycle. There is no separating different bottles into different colored bins, driving an hour to a specialized recycling center in the next county over, and so on…

Here, many people make their living looking for recyclables. Not only that, they

[Continue reading Doorway Recycling]

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