When in China, we developed a hypersensitivity to anything "Western." Language, food, cultural icons - you name it. When walking through the night market, our eyes would feast on illegal copies of second rate American movies and T-shirts with non-sensical English phrases. In our neighborhood, there was very little that we could legitimately call Western, because most imported items would be found in the fancy shopping centers downtown.
However, one guilty pleasure that was in the local convenience stores (during the winter months only) was the Magnum Bar - a surprisingly high quality ice cream bar, akin to the Dove bar in the US. I never paid too much attention to where it came from, until last week at Target, I saw it:
A whole freezer case full of the ice cream bars on display. Turns out they are made by Nestle, which obviously has a huge international footprint. But it is kind of funny that we ate this in China before it was ever available in the US!
I have also been wondering how our taste buds have changed since returning. If I were able to transport myself to one of the Western restaurants in Chengdu, would I still think the food there was good? Or did my tastes simply adjust with time?
Last night, I ate some awesome Tiramisu at Franco's; while the version we ate at Ikea's cafeteria in Chengdu certainly would not compare. Every couple of weeks at lunch, my taste buds would tingle for a McDonald's double cheeseburger meal, while nowadays the Golden Arches are the furthest thing from my mind. On the other hand, the peanut butter oreo blizzard at Peter's (made by special request only) would probably kick the pants off the cookies and cream ice cream from Target in our freezer. So in some cases I think my likes were legit. But it simply is too hard to objectively verify if my mental inklings are correct...
And about those Magnum bars? We did not buy any. Granted it is still in the 40s here, and Rachel is more of an ice cream person than me anyway!
-alan
However, one guilty pleasure that was in the local convenience stores (during the winter months only) was the Magnum Bar - a surprisingly high quality ice cream bar, akin to the Dove bar in the US. I never paid too much attention to where it came from, until last week at Target, I saw it:
A whole freezer case full of the ice cream bars on display. Turns out they are made by Nestle, which obviously has a huge international footprint. But it is kind of funny that we ate this in China before it was ever available in the US!
I have also been wondering how our taste buds have changed since returning. If I were able to transport myself to one of the Western restaurants in Chengdu, would I still think the food there was good? Or did my tastes simply adjust with time?
Last night, I ate some awesome Tiramisu at Franco's; while the version we ate at Ikea's cafeteria in Chengdu certainly would not compare. Every couple of weeks at lunch, my taste buds would tingle for a McDonald's double cheeseburger meal, while nowadays the Golden Arches are the furthest thing from my mind. On the other hand, the peanut butter oreo blizzard at Peter's (made by special request only) would probably kick the pants off the cookies and cream ice cream from Target in our freezer. So in some cases I think my likes were legit. But it simply is too hard to objectively verify if my mental inklings are correct...
And about those Magnum bars? We did not buy any. Granted it is still in the 40s here, and Rachel is more of an ice cream person than me anyway!
-alan
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