Feeling Depressed Looking at the Packed Shelves in Domestic Supermarkets

Freshippo's frozen and ready-to-eat stuff can definitely set you up for a letdown, but that "eat it all in one day" limit you mentioned is pretty key too—if you're only staying a few days, no matter how many varieties there are, it's just window shopping, and in the end you might only get to actually eat a handful of meals.

People's experiences with supermarkets can vary quite a bit depending on where they live and who they are. In the Bay Area, for example, if you live close to 99 Ranch, H Mart, or some smaller Asian grocery stores, you'll have a lot more options than Costco; but if you live somewhere out of the way and don't drive, you might have to go pretty far just to buy a decent bottle of soy sauce. So the feeling of "feed" probably has a lot to do with which specific area you live in and how you usually do your grocery shopping.

If you really wanted to recreate that eat-and-wander-around experience from back home over there, cost aside, the daily pace alone would be impossible to keep up.

In the end, what stings most in the article isn't how much stuff Hema has, but that the Westfield food court only has chain fast food like Chipotle and Panda. Compared with the scene in Chinese malls, where Yunnan cuisine, Fujian cuisine, and Huaiyang cuisine each have their own stall, the gap becomes obvious.

You say that "new innovative dishes pop up every year"—that's an interesting observation, but it might also have something to do with the fact that each time you go back, you do your shopping and exploring in concentrated bursts. If you were someone who lived in China long-term, you might feel that there are only so many places you regularly go to, and the sense of novelty wouldn't be as strong. So whether there really is large-scale innovation every year, or whether short-term stays just magnify everyday changes, might be worth thinking about a bit more.

If you're only back for a short visit, don't rush to pack your schedule. Start with the one or two things you've been craving most, and save the rest for next time.