I have been making breakfast and bento for nearly two years. Many people are curious about where I purchase the ingredients. After all, I usually leave for work at 7:30, get off work at 6:30 and squeeze in the car, and it is almost 7:30 in the evening. I didn’t get home until eight o’clock, and I never knew which day I would work overtime and even the supermarket would be closed when I got home. It is obviously unrealistic to go straight to the vegetable market to buy groceries and cook at home as soon as you get off work.

Therefore, my daily purchasing method is to combine multiple channels. All roads lead to Rome, and there are always more solutions than problems. Generally speaking, on weekends and rest days, I go to the vegetable market to buy fresh vegetables, fruits and eggs, the supermarket to buy meat and seafood, and the bakery to buy bread. The weather is hot in summer, and meat is prone to spoilage in high-temperature environments, and most vegetable markets lack a good preservation environment. Of course, there are also some meat specialty stores with better preservation conditions. My suggestion is to purchase the meat appropriately, fresh, elastic and without odor is best.

In addition to the above two common methods, there are also fresh food supermarkets on major e-commerce platforms. Occasionally, you can see aunties selling home-grown vegetables on the roadside in the morning or evening. No matter which way you choose, just meet your personal purchasing needs and preserve the ingredients.

1. Vegetable market

Regarding the vegetable market, generally if you live in an old city or a place where mature communities are concentrated, there will be a street full of fresh ingredients hidden in the alleys. A wet market with the smell of livestock and the sound of bargaining. It may be indoors or outdoors, but there will be a variety of ingredients.

Under normal circumstances, the vegetables in the wet market are the freshest in the morning. Most shopkeepers purchase them in the early morning and give priority to selling to big customers such as restaurants and restaurants. During the scattered time during the day, they focus on selling to daily customers. People who buy. Therefore, it is recommended to go to the vegetable market in the morning or in the morning on weekends to buy fresh ingredients and various varieties, and the selling price can also be negotiated. Some vendors will also sell some vegetables of slightly reduced quality at low prices in the evening. After all, fresh ingredients are not easy to preserve and it is not cost-effective to stock up in large quantities. It is best to clear the stocks on the same day. Therefore, if you need to pay attention to the quality of ingredients when purchasing in the afternoon, the price is generally slightly lower than in the morning.

Some vendors will rinse and wash the ingredients they sell to make them look particularly fresh and clean. But one thing I would like to remind everyone is that vegetables that have been washed will spoil faster, so it is best to eat them as soon as possible after buying them. Especially root vegetables: potatoes, sweet potatoes, etc., if they are not stored properly after washing, they will rot faster and are not conducive to preservation. You can just buy these vegetables unwashed. Lotus roots can also be wrapped in mud. If washed, they need to be eaten as soon as possible. Subsequent articles will detail how to preserve common ingredients.

In addition to vegetables, wet markets generally also have meat, poultry, eggs, soy products, semi-processed materials, etc. The varieties are generally more diverse than supermarkets, and they are relatively fresh and the prices are more affordable than supermarkets. There are also some people who grow some vegetables that they can’t finish eating, so they set up temporary stalls to sell them in the vegetable market or on the roadside. Generally, the quantity is not large, but they are better because of their freshness. The price fluctuates greatly, usually slightly higher than the vegetable market price, and the appearance is not good. It would be great, but there’s nothing wrong with the quality.

Some people may say that they have just moved to a new place and are not familiar with the surrounding vegetable markets. You can find them through the following methods: (1) Search the Internet to see if there is relevant information, or whether map navigation can provide it. Help; (2) Directly ask the purchasing uncle and auntie pulling a cart you met in the morning how to get to the nearest vegetable market. Usually they will be very enthusiastic to take you to the vegetable market; (3) Ask the neighbors, landlords, and property managers. Not a bad idea.

2. Supermarkets

The supermarkets referred to here generally refer to Wal-Mart, Carrefour, and local large-scale stores, which sell a variety of fresh food. Supermarkets usually have some vegetable markets that don’t have ingredients, and the two can just complement each other. Most supermarkets open later than the vegetable market in the evening, and usually close at 9 or 10 pm, which is a good choice for replenishing ingredients during the last two days of the week.

Ingredients in supermarkets have usually been sorted, and those that have not been sorted are usually taken out of the cold storage. Most of them are specially supplied by the supermarket. The ingredients themselves will be put into the freezer when they are close to maturity. Sometimes these ingredients are no longer fresh when sold. It doesn't taste as good as the fresh ingredients from the wet market. There are also some ingredients that are of better quality, but their relative prices are much higher than those purchased at the wet market.

Supermarkets usually have a lot of activities, and there are usually special prices for ingredients in the morning and evening. At this time, uncles and aunts with nimble hands and feet will catch the wind and pick out all the good ingredients. Yang Wuyang crowded in front of the scale and scrambled to code and pay. Therefore, please pay attention to your own safety and the safety of the other party at this time to avoid accidental personal conflicts. At the same time, you have to wait patiently in line to be weighed and coded.

So for me, supermarkets are generally the choice when replenishing food ingredients, and I won’t buy in large quantities. However, I usually purchase some semi-finished ingredients, or meat and shrimps in the supermarket. As for fish, I prefer to buy fish at the wet market, because I can let the fish boss handle it for me, saving me the trouble of going home to scrape the scales and dig out the gills. In addition, there are more varieties and quantities of ingredients such as pigeons, eels, and loaches in wet markets than in supermarkets.

There are some small fruit and vegetable shops near the gates of some communities. The prices are basically the same as or slightly higher than supermarkets. There are not too many varieties, usually common varieties, which is convenient for residents in the community and surrounding areas to purchase temporarily.

Generally, the ingredients are not excessively cleaned, and the cleanliness of the store and the quality of the ingredients will fluctuate depending on the shop owner's preferences. Can be used as an alternative food storage method.

3. E-commerce platform

Someone should have tried Tmall Supermarket’s fresh food store, as well as JD.com’s fresh food, Taobao’s online stores in some local supermarkets, all of which can provide same-day or Next day home delivery service. The advantage is that it is suitable for lazy people. They can just sit at home and wait for the door to come to them. They spend money to buy time and do not have to go out to be exposed to the wind and sun. The uneasy part is that you can't choose it yourself, you can only get what is sent to you, and it is not convenient to return or exchange if there are no major quality problems. Meat will be delivered quick-frozen, so you need to worry about whether it will be thawed and thawed repeatedly on the way, affecting its quality and taste.

I usually purchase some ingredients through e-commerce platforms when it is inconvenient to go out for shopping, or when I occasionally have major events. I am more accustomed to picking fresh ingredients myself, because in my opinion, the freshness of the ingredients can be judged comprehensively through sight, touch and smell. Fresh and delicious ingredients will increase your appetite when you see, smell, and touch them. The product pictures on the Internet only provide visual reference, and you need to figure out the rest by yourself!

In addition to e-commerce platforms, there are already apps that specialize in selling fresh ingredients, but I have not come into contact with them so far. Some places have special cabinets for storing ingredients, similar to express delivery boxes. It is a convenient and fast way to place an order during the day and get fresh ingredients when you go home at night.

Nowadays, there are more and more ways to purchase. Compared with when I was a child, I could only go to the vegetable market to buy vegetables. The degree of development of the times is always surprising. Lazy people drive the world (technology) and money saves time. No matter which method you choose, the goal is to purchase fresh and delicious ingredients, just choose the method that suits you. If you like the vegetable market, go to the vegetable market to buy. If you like the supermarket, go to the supermarket to buy. If you are too lazy to go out, you can also place an order online and wait for it to be delivered to your door. There are so many choices to choose from and combine. After preparing the ingredients, the next step is to preserve the ingredients.

Are you ready?