The Avocado Lady = My Produce God

   This has been driving me nuts since yesterday. I had mentioned the Avocado Lady in my post and was going to refer to the previous post where I talked a little more about her but I SWEAR I looked in all the posts and couldn't find mention of her anywhere. Well, October 15th (Bike Buying Experience) was the day that I talked about her and I went to stock up on some things tonight and took some pictures of her stall(shop?).

First, let me introduce her again...

Meet the Avocado Lady, I wish I knew her real name

This is what they say about her "The Avocado Lady is not an urban myth, but to many expats is one of Shanghai's urban legends. Her store is ever gaining in size and produce, what she doesn't have she can order. Her store is regularly stocked with fresh mints, herbs, tropical fruits, cheese, olive oil, lamb and avocados". I feel the need to talk about her again b/c every expat in Shanghai can appreciate the range of products that she carries. And, she sells them for cheap. I think that she can do this b/c it keeps people coming back. I haven't been or passed by when her shop wasn't full of people fighting for produce, cheeses and meats. She has things that NO other markets carry. Like every fresh herb that you can think of, HUGE blocks of cheese that she whacks pcs off of for people and random processed goods (good olive oil, capers, boxed brownies, canned soups). She keeps me coming back for the medjoul dates from Israel...they are so plump and delicious.
   Another thing that is super cool is that she knows a bit of English and I'm pretty sure it's only from selling produce to westerners. She knows the English names off all the stuff that she sells, so you can ask for tortillas, pines nuts or muenster cheese and she can tell you w/o even looking whether there is stock in that item. The Avocado Lady also does all the math in her head and she's fast. She has a pad of paper that she uses to keep track of the running tally as she's weighing all the items and packing them for you to bring home.
 
   I'm impressed every time!

Her stall, not anything fancy. Looks just like all the other produce stalls until you step inside and see the selection.

She even has a freezer of all sorts of meat. She could probably pull out a turkey if you asked
and not even b/c it's close to the American Thanksgiving!!

T.A.L. in action

 Another purchase today:

   I've been craving a grain other then rice which is how I ended up with Amaranth (which is a grain/seed that I have never really even heard of and definitely not cooked before). It looks a lot like Quinoa so I made the purchase. But after getting home and looking up how to cook it I found so many people talking about how hard it is to cook. It easily turns into a sloppy mush or takes almost 2 hours for it to get tender. It's also very tiny so straining it is difficult, you would have to use cheese cloth. Does anyone cook with this? Have any ideas how it should be eaten? I have enough of it that I will need some help...even epicurious.com only has 3 recipes :( and they don't sound very good. This salad turned out well but I can only eat so much salad.

I can always make a great dinner the next several days after I stop to buy produce from T.A.L.
Tonight, an amaranth and bean salad.