I love shopping at the Asian markets, coming home laden with boxes and jars and frozen items, as well as quite a few fresh vegetables. The white mushrooms (can't find a pic online, and clerk couldn't name them for me) were a huge tender stem, with just a small blossoming top. We'll be having those as a little side dish, just to try their own flavor before mixing with other items another time.
We watched the busy shoppers bagging up burdock---I've seen it grow down South, but these were yard-long thin shoots, apparently limited only by the dimensions of their shipping box. There were greens aplenty, and several that I wanted to ask if they were for cooking as a dish, or herbs for flavoring another dish. The great stacks of boxes held baby bok choy, broccoli rabe, tiny pickling cucumbers, the shiniest of scallions whose ROOTS were even white and thick and pretty.
There were the fanleaves of all sorts of greens, and I was struck by the jewelly loveliness of the tiny turnips and daikons still attached to the neat sheaves, like dangly earrings on a deb. The slenderest of lavender eggplants, others of a mottled stripey pale green; small melons and limes and bunches of what looked like the daffodil sprouts punctuating our back garden---all were just sitting there, no refrigeration, just being gathered up as a daily fresh-shopping excursion which must occur for more families here than I realized.
We loaded up on a gallon of soy sauce, which I decant into a bottle for storing in the fridge door; big can goes into the cool storeroom. Jars and bottles of oyster sauce, aji mirin, sambal oolek, rice wine vinegar, coconut milk; fresh udon, a couple of packs of VERY firm tofu for the mapo another evening, bean sprouts, bamboo shoots and water chestnuts, a half gallon of medium Kimchi, and a pack of frozen squid as a treat for Leah, who likes them dusted with cornstarch and sizzled just a few seconds in peanut oil.
I've never actually CLEANED any, but I figure it can't be harder than catfish. And these looked so nice, just 2" little fellows, lined up so symmetrically in their little styrofoam bed with their wee grabbers all curled up like pink babytoes.
No wonder so many Asian cooks seem to live ZEN.
I've never shopped at an Asian Market - your descriptions are marvelous! An overwhelming display of colorful and mysterious (to me) ingredients - I would want to purchase one of each! I am sure the flavors of the fresh and genuine foodstuff is so much different than any Asian dish I have tried. What a delightful trip.
ReplyDeleteI've been in LOVE with Asian cooking since about eight. The lovely sights and tastes are just the sauce on the Udon! We love experimenting with all the exotic-to-us flavors, and view sesame oil as a prized elixir.
DeleteMy dear R,
ReplyDelete"I was struck by the jewelly loveliness of the tiny turnips and daikons still attached to the neat sheaves, like dangly earrings on a deb."
You paint with words, and the whole post reads like a still-life painting; every colour, texture and fragrance arranged so vividly that I felt as though I were wandering the aisles with you, peering into baskets and crates, taking in all the wonderful sights.
Living out here in the countryside, we don't have the luxury of an Asian market nearby, and I do miss browsing through one. I especially miss buying freshly made dim sum and fragrant orange blossom Oolong tea. These days I have to order the tea online, which is all very convenient, but it can never quite replace the pleasure of discovering treasures in person.
Markets like the one you've described are such a blessing. Not only do they offer an astonishing variety of ingredients, but they're so much kinder on the purse than our supermarkets. Here, a tiny bottle of soy sauce can easily cost three times as much as buying it from an Asian grocery, and somehow it never seems to taste quite as authentic!
I do admire your wonderfully adventurous palate. Your shopping basket always contains something intriguing that I'd never have thought to try. And I smiled at Leah's fondness for squid. G, on the other hand, finds the texture far too rubbery, so it rarely makes an appearance in our kitchen.
Thank you for taking us all on this delightful excursion. Long may your words continue to fill our baskets with such vivid sights and delicious discoveries.
What a delightful trip to the market…so much produce that I’m not familiar with but would love to try. I just love an outdoor market…a produce market, a craft market or a flea market…I’m IN! Thank you for the tour …and happy last day of June…hurray for July! Have a great one, xo, Virginia
ReplyDeleteRIck is very big on our Asian market, but I think you have him beat! Love your descriptions; makes me want to accompany him next time!
ReplyDeleteI missed this, Jeanie!! And PLEASE DO! It's a lovely experience, with all the colors and shades of green, with all those sauces and mixes and so many PACKETS of things. I tell myself now and then that some of the greatest chefs in Japan and China cook from crinkly Packets. Wish I could tour you through several of ours.
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