International Delight

It's pretty common knowledge that I love a good deal. I believe one of my first posts was about seeking out freebies. I've discovered that some of the best places in town to get greatly discounted groceries are the international markets. They not only have incredibly reasonable produce, but also an enormous variety of veggies not found at any other stores.

If you don't have one of these places near you, perhaps you're picturing an outdoor farmers market. However, I'm referring to indoor supermarkets dedicated almost solely to international foods. In my area, there is "H Mart" and "Grand Mart", both of which are largely Asian, with Hispanic and Middle Eastern foods thrown in as well. I've found that shopping at these places is like shopping at Marshall's... some of them are phenomenal and others have sub-par goods and emit nauseating smells. Still, I pursue them for their unusual goods.

I love cooking and I love exhibiting diversity in my cooking, but it can sometimes prove difficult to find more exotic ingredients. Some of my "ethnic" cookbooks are so authentic that I have to fill in the blanks to figure out what they're talking about. Therefore, you can imagine the contorted face I make when reading some lesser known ingredients. That is, lesser known until I step into the fabled international store.

In addition to more commonly used items like sesame oil, soba noodles, black fungus, rice vinegar and various dumplings, I like going to these stores to be surprised. There are many, many obscure items I have never seen the likes of in my typical American supermarkets. Take this next vegetable, for instance. The sign said it's "Indian bitter melon." You're actually supposed to eat the bumpy skin and all, according to Wikipedia. It has the consistency of a cucumber, but is very bitter and gets more bitter while it ages. Hmmm. I'm thinkin' no on the weird bitter veggies.

Fun to look at, but that's about it for me.

The one use that actually made sense to me was that the bitter melon is sometimes used in place of hops when making some types of beer. Being that I don't yet make my own beer, I'm still going to pass on this veggie.

There are a lot of items that I can't figure out the contents of, and the foreign character writing doesn't help. It's not even the same alphabet, by any stretch of the imagination, so it's not as though I can attempt to sound it out or find the root of the word. At times, I've tried asking people working at the store for assistance. That is an adventure in itself and can be met with a nice answer, or the often encountered alternative of a blank stare. I also get a lot of smiles and nods with no actual answer. When that's the case, I've turned to total avoidance. Otherwise I end up with potentially sketchy things like this:

Is it mustard? Curry?  Liquified animal?

I applaud more adventurous people who might buy such items and experiment with them. However, I just can't bring myself to do it. Seeing all the fish parts and chicken feet in the store, I can't stomach spending money on something I'll take one whiff of and throw out. And believe me, you should not take whiffs of some of these things because you will throw them out. I know they often taste delicious when cooked with other foods, but the raw materials are enough to turn my stomach. The amount of dried seafood and animal parts is mind boggling. Anyway, check out the next picture. It very well could be sliced horse testicles for all I know, so I must stay away from it.

Stay very far away from "mystery meat."

This also goes for any item that has a very brief description in English which really isn't too descriptive. I don't care how tasty that bag of frozen dumplings looks, if the English words underneath all the characters simply say "meat dumpling" I'm walking away. Exactly what kind of meat is in that package? Sometimes I really don't want to know, so I stick with my familiar chicken (which probably isn't the same "parts" I'm used to eating, anyway. Let's ignore that.).

Some of my favorites are the English words on seemingly normal items. They don't even seem unusual... until you take a closer look and discover that one teeny element got lost in translation.

I wonder what THIS tastes like.

I'd encourage everyone to take a whirl through some unfamiliar supermarkets, particularly those catering to immigrants and lovers of imported foods. I know the movement right now is to eat locally and I definitely respect that, too. But there's a wealth of learning at our local supermarkets that many people overlook. Be warned--these places tend to be madhouses on the weekends so going during off hours is preferable. But then again, dodging carts like bumper cars as people of various ethnicities gesture wildly and yell in their native languages is kind of half the fun. They sometimes seem creeped out as I stare at the unidentified items in their carts, but hey, I'm trying. Maybe one day I'll be feasting on that spicy cock soup with chicken feet, dried fish balls and spikey-skinned vegetables. Until then (if that day EVER comes), I'll just stick with my jicama, tahini and kaffir lime leaves.