Egg Purchasing 101

This weekend we decided that we would make pancakes, so we needed to buy some eggs for our pancake mixture. We ponder as to how one may purchase the eggs here in China. The eggs are not refrigerated as we see back home, and unless I get them from the farm, we have no idea how long they have been sitting on the shelves. They come in all sorts of plastic containers lining the shelves, and a few are still in the egg crates.

I decided to ask a few people in my class on Friday in hopes that I may be able to get some insight. So much for that idea. I had two people tell me that they have the person who cleans their home to also buy their groceries so they couldn't help. The next gal tells me that she won't even purchase them here, since she doesn't trust the freshness of them, and the rest tell me that they chance it, since they too have no idea on how to purchase eggs.

We came to the conclusion, right or wrong, that the ones in the carton appear to be the freshest since those egg cartons are usually empty.

I went to the store, looked at the entire row of eggs on the shelf and spot two cartons of eggs. One is full, the other had two left. I went for the one that had two left, believing that these would be the freshest ones. You grab a plastic bag, have them weighed, and pay the cashier, all the time gingerly carrying the bag, hoping that they don't break, and voila a successful purchase.

Okay, Nancy E., where are you when I need you.