i can get a bowl of hand-pulled noodles for less than $1 at the school cafeteria, and — for better or for worse — that has become my standard for all prices here in China. it’s become my own little currency: a mosquito bat for 3 bowls of noodles? well, i guess that’s worth it. an iced coffee for 2 bowls of noodles? hell no!
well, yesterday, we went to a chinese Starbucks for the first time, and i had** to spend more than FIVE BOWLS OF NOODLES on a freakin’ grande strawberry lemonade. can you believe it? it’s just about the most expensive food purchase i’ve made in china so far.
i was curious to see if the chinese starbucks is very different from those in the US, and we found out that they’re not different at all. same boring greenish-brownish theme, pretty much the same menu of drinks, same sale of mugs, etc. the only different item we noticed were these starbucks mooncakes, which cost about FORTY BOWLS OF NOODLES. actually, that price is probably not that crazy. mooncakes are all pretty expensive, even in china. there’s a mid-autumn festival coming up soon, and they’re selling them everywhere. i’m not a big fan, which is a good thing since we can’t afford them. think of how many bowls of noodles we can get for one cake!
**i had to have it. i was so thirsty. shenzhen heat is killing me. please send help.
OK 2 things.
1. Are you sure this was a ‘real’ Starbucks, and not just a very very good copy? You know what I mean.
2. I just went through business conduct training at work and no lie, they used accepting mooncakes in China as an example of what not to do when trying to act ethically. !
1. i will never know if it was a real SB or not. i should go back and check if it’s still there this weekend.
2. hilarious! is getting mooncakes is like accepting a suitcase full of cash? i love it.
what is a mooncake made of?
it’s a little hard to describe. they’re dense little cakes that have skin on the outside and usually some kind of sweet bean filling inside. they remind me of fig newtons, sort of. you should try one! they sell them all over chinatown.
LOVE that pic of you.
you look so happy:)
I want a mooncake! Also, that strawberry smoothie may have cost you more than five bowls of noodles, but you sure look happy, so I say it’s worth it!