A Visit to an Asian Food Market

As I dropped off my children to a nearby city's movie theater the other day, I decided to stop by a Chinese food store in the adjacent plaza.  I go to these markets very rarely.  In contrast, when I was younger, we frequented these places as much as we could.  As the only Asian family in our neighborhood, and the only Asian in my entire school, finding such international foods was a difficult task.  We would have to trek to Boston's China Town those days, and a few times we even shopped in New York and New Jersey.

I did not hold a very fond impression of those shopping experiences.  The aroma of some of those places was pungently strong.  I had seen an occasional cat wondering up and down the aisles, dust and dirt here and there, and the sharp foreign accents confused me.  But my mother enjoyed the wide selection of noodles, entire rows of lo mein, rice noodles, bean threads, and the scores of other yellow, transparent, thick, and thin varieties.  My mother would be victorious if she would find her favorites -- pancit bihon and pancit canton. 

For this reason, whenever I do shop at a Chinese, or International food store, I usually only buy noodles, those specific kinds.  The other items my mother would buy -- opaque bottles of pastes, cans of uncommon (to me) fruit called jackfruit, tubs of sardines, and bags of dried squid or octopus, were simply a little too exotic.  For dessert I might sometimes buy sweet buns, but proceed with caution before swallowing, since from a previous traumatizing experience I once found myself chewing an old nail! 

My purchase of three bags of noodles and a pound of frozen sesame buns (vegetarian, with no preservatives) cost only $10.32.  Buying a small bag of noodles at the local grocery store alone normally costs $4 to $5 a bag.  The dishes I make take less than 20 minutes to prepare and stir-fry, and it a great way for my daughter to eat her carrots, onions, and cabbage.   For dessert, I'll be steaming the sesame buns, a process that only takes 10 minutes.  Not overwhelmingly nutritious, the buns provide only 2.6 g of protein, but a great alternative to a sugary cake.

So, if you are in the neighborhood of a Chinese market, you might want to walk over and check out what they have available.  It's always nice to vary the dinner and dessert menu, and you might find that prices there are much lower than at a grocery store.