Photo Essay: Unexpected Flavors

Sometimes, as I walk through a Chinese supermarket, the cockles of my heart will be warmed by the sight of a familiar American brand.

Upon closer inspection, I often find a surprise; many flavors sold in America are not available here (cheese chief among them), and many flavors are sold here that would never sell in America.

Today we'll look at Crest, Lay's, Oreos, and Bugles.

Crest:  No big surprises, except maybe the variety.  Here we have some apparently flower-flavored toothpastes, along with some lemon, mint, and a mysterious diamond.

Lays:  The "Cool & Refreshing" series is my favorite.  I like the cucumber flavor, and sometimes have even found blueberry.

Lime

Mexican tomato chicken

Cucumber :)

Italian beef meat

Numb & spicy hot pot

Texas grilled BBQ

Classic

Oreos:  Here is where the greatest sacrileges take place.  Classic Oreos are simply the best.  The only other tolerable choices are birthday cake, ice cream, chocolate, and maybe strawberry.  The green tea flavor is bad and the fruit mixes are terrible.

Raspberry/blueberry.  Not good.

Mango/orange.  Never tried it.

Green tea ice cream?  Not good.

Strawberry.

Peach/grape.  Worst Oreos I've ever eaten.

Vanilla ice cream

Chocolate

Ahhhhhh..... The best.

Finally, Bugles.  Our campus grocery store has an impressive variety of these.

Tomato ketchup

Tomato meat

Steak?

Hm... something beefy?

Yet another mystery.  I need to learn to read.

Corn

Corn again

Tomato beef brisket

There are lots of Asian snack brands as well.  They often include even stranger flavors, often involving shrimp, prawns, or seaweed. 

This concludes your tour through our campus grocery's snack aisle.