Today is Easter Sunday and the whole Christian world is celebrating the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Although there is no such thing as easter in China, I was surprised to see some easter egg-shaped chocolates at Jusco today. Oh well, I guess they're slowly catching on...

Anyway, Happy Easter!!!

There was an Aussie Food Fair @ Jusco two weeks ago and it was good because it was in time of our weekly grocery trip to that mall. Upon seeing all the goods on offer, both Hubby and I were filled with so much joy and excitement and quickly switched to the "panic-buying mode". And why not? For a limited time, some of the brands that we used to love and buy in Australia were there. There were different brands of olive oil manufactured in Australia, herbs, spices and seasonings, chocolate drinks in small tin cans, oatmeals and mueslis and some dairy products as well. We quickly went on gathering San Remo pastas and sauces, Masterfoods seasonings and some Flora dairy products (not in photo) because we happen to like them the most.

The result... our final grocery bill was double the amount that we usually pay on a weekly basis!

There is so much concern now about the radioactive leak from the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant in Japan and tiny amounts of radiation are now detected in the air in countries like Hong Kong, China, Philippines, Vietnam and South Korea and according to internet news even in some parts of the US. Now, everyone is also shunning products from Japan especially food for fear of contamination.

Yesterday we went grocery shopping at the Jusco mall in Daliang. I have always been in the habit of buying fresh ripe bananas in that grocery store because they have these selection coming from the Philippines. I have always been partial about bananas from my country not only because I am a Filipino but because our bananas really taste the best in Asia and perhaps it's even one of the best-tasting bananas in the world which explains why we export it to so many countries. I usually buy the "Singing" brand because they are a bit cheaper than their counterparts (Dole or Del Monte) but taste the same for me. But yesterday, there were only two bunches left of this brand and they already look black and blue from mishandling. So I opted to buy the Dole Sweetio brand.

Upon reaching home, I immediately proceeded to putting away the groceries and when I opened the plastic wrapping of the bananas, I found some Japanese characters on it. I asked Hubby to check for me where is the country of origin for the bananas (you know how everything here is labeled in Chinese characters). According to him, the price sticker says it's from the Philippines but the label on the plastic says that the country is Japan. Oh my! Are these radioactive bananas then?

Today the bananas have ripened some more and I bet they are already perfect for consumption. But we did not dare eat them yet. I did some research on the internet last night regarding Dole bananas and all the information I got were that they mostly source out their bananas from the Philippines and Thailand for the Asian market and in some Latin American countries for those to be delivered to North America and Europe. There is just a distribution center in Shanghai and Qingdao, China. My logical assumption would be that these bananas might have come directly from the Philippines indeed and have been shippped to China for sorting and distribution and selling to the local market. This distribution center might also be responsible for sending some of the products to Japan.

We still have not decided if we will eat them yet. If we throw them away, we would have wasted 12 Yuan worth of "innocent" fruit and if we eat them and they are contaminated, who knows what will happen to us. Oh, if only the bananas could talk and tell me where they come from....:-)