Thursday Thirteen

[jmc_bks]

Thirteen Things about JMC's trip to Han Ah Reum

I went grocery shopping at Han Ah Reum, a Korean grocery store, on Monday. It reminded me of how very white-bread average I am when it comes to food prep. I love Thai food and Indian food, but I never cook it at home and would have no idea how to start. The sheer volume of exotic foodstuffs boggled my brain. Green tea jelly? Cans of stuff that had fruit pictured on the front so that anyone who couldn’t read the script would know what it was. Even the not-so-exotic entertained me. Turkey SPAM anyone?

1. Mochi. They had red and green ones – I’m assuming red bean flavored and green tea on top of the red beans, but I’m not sure. I bought one of the green ones because it was beautifully presented. It’s sitting in the fridge waiting for me to eat it.

2. Lychees. Yum. I haven’t had these since my vacation in Hawaii, when we stopped at our tour guide’s house and she picked them off a tree in her front yard and handed them to us to eat.

3. Almond jelly. I’m not really sure what to do with it, but I liked the idea of it, so a jar came home with me.

4. Avocados. Way cheaper than the market in my neighborhood. Not quite ripe on Monday, but ripe enough for dinner last night.

5. Tapioca pearls. They are HUGE. They came in little baggies, either white with a few colors scattered or all black. You boil them and sprinkle with honey or sugar as a dessert. I love tapioca pudding, but had never seen these before, so I had to try them.

6. Beautiful black plums. They may have a particular name, I’m not sure. But the flesh is so red that it is almost purple, a combination of sweet and tart.

7. Korean pears. Never tried them before, but now I have several ripening on my kitchen table.

8. Forelle pears. Another pear variety I hadn’t tried before. I’m a fool for pears, so I have several of these ripening as well.

9. Japanese pears. Um, I mentioned that I’m a fool for pears, right?

10. Grapeseed oil. I have a recipe that needs a tiny teeny portion of grapeseed oil. So I now have a pint of it, waiting to be used. It smells really good to me.

11. A huge container of frozen Udon noodles.

12. Concentrate to make horchata. :sigh: It’s not the same as the stuff you can buy at a café in Madrid or Sevilla, but it’s still good :)

13. Crushed pear juice. Pears again. I’m hopeless.



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Comments

[msmoby.livejournal.com]

Yum! I'm with you--I love Indian food especially, but don't know much about it. I did buy myself an Indian cookbook, though, so I'm going to try.

Indian

[jmc-bks.livejournal.com]

I haven't attempted Indian fare from scratch...but I do buy the packaged stuff from Trader Joe's -- masala sauce and paneer -- just cook some chicken and warm up some naan and I'm set :)

[miladyinsanity.livejournal.com]

Yum yum.

I love lychees.

JM, you can boil the tapioca balls and add them to drinks too. They are pretty much tasteless, so anything goes. Grapeseed oil's really good in vinaigrettes, etc.

[jmc-bks.livejournal.com]

Dumb question -- tapioca balls in drinks? What would you recommend? My tapioca experience is limited to cooked tapioca pudding, so I'm open to any suggestions.

[miladyinsanity.livejournal.com]

Nah, not dumb. Bubble Tea was all the rage here a couple of years ago.

Do you know what's bubble tea? Those pearls are what they put inside. Just boil them and drop 'em into your drink. I've seen them in milk tea, juice, ice blendeds...Basically they add some texture.

It's not to everybody's taste, but if you like the tapioca pearls, you can give it a try.

[jmc-bks.livejournal.com]

I'll try some bubble tea this evening and report back. Thanks!

Tapioca bubbles

[jmc-bks.livejournal.com]

I added them to my tea last night. Eh. Not good, not bad, just there. I'm a little disappointed, probably because I had high expectations. Oh well, I'll get over it and try something else new :)

Re: Tapioca bubbles

[miladyinsanity.livejournal.com]

Oops. Maybe that wasn't the best suggestion after all.

Sorry about that.

Re: Tapioca bubbles

[jmc-bks.livejournal.com]

No problem -- like I said, it wasn't bad. Just sort of -there-. I kept thinking that they would be good to add to pasta, bringing a different texture.

[(Anonymous)]

How to prepare Thai or Indian: buy cookbook. Buy ingredients. Wing it.

I'll try to remember to send you the names of my Thai and Indian cookbooks. They're both excellent.

My 13 are up ;)

Doug

[jmc-bks.livejournal.com]

I'm a cooking wimp -- not so great at the winging it part. I'm a recipe follower, at least until I'm comfortable cooking a particular dish. After I've established a comfort zone, I try different stuff.

Maybe I'll go cookbook hunting this weekend. Any excuse to hang out at a bookstore :)