I almost titled this post "Let me lick your feet" but I know what kind of traffic that would get me. And then they'd be angry that I wasn't some kind of sandal fetishist.
Yesterday we made the cross-town trek to the giant Asian supermarket on the West side to stock up on rice wine vinegar, ramen in a bowl, and nori for Mao's lunch. Also picked up some staples for friends (seaweed salad for Sam, Pocky for poor root canaled dogfaceboy).
The nice manager gave me the ok to take a few pictures, which, take it from the only person I know to have ever been kicked out of Trader Joe's for suspected corporate espionage, is pretty unusual for a supermarket.
Compared to what we were used to in Chinatown in New York, this suburban market is huge and sparkling clean and has a massive variety of packaged, rehydrated, dehydrated, and house-made stuff, from every corner of Asia and parts of the Caribbean too. People of all flavors come from miles around - where else can you get durian, tindora, sour bamboo shoot slivers, duck sausage, fresh rambutan, jackfruit in a can, cooked dried whole anchovies, and a bucket of kimchi all under one roof?
Last night we sampled our purchases: bulgogi wrapped in lettuce leaves for dinner (thanks to Organizer Fairy's suggestion), acorn pudding for dessert. Acorn pudding? Sounds pretty weird - tastes weirder. I can't even find anything pertinent to link to. I have stumped the Internets.
Besides this lovely picture of the beef tongue and pig's feet, I didn't even take many pictures of the fresh meats and fishies, some of it so fresh that it... is.. still... ALIVE!
I may be a dedicated cook (then again, I may not be), but I draw the line at chopping something's head off myself.
Friday, May 30, 2008
Kind of at a loss for words
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Oh good Lord, not durian fruit! I still have nightmares about the smell!
ReplyDeleteIf you really want to get creeped out, go to an open-air market in Asia. There is no end to the number of living animals next to their dead counterparts- beside the many that are in the process of becoming dead- and so many living frogs, crabs, eels, fish, crayfish and every other kind of creature imaginable. In a little hotel I stayed in, the lobby had a tank with enormous snakes, eels, fish, frogs and turtles in it - all alive- so that the staff could serve them to you. It's just nuts!
ReplyDeleteWhen I used to do a lot of international meetings, we'd have gross-out contests: all the Australians would have stories about the beetles and stuff they'd eaten, the Asians would talk about picking out a puppy for dinner (the cute ones taste better, they'd joke), etc etc.
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