Asian Paradise
One of the best things about living on Portland's east side is that there is a thriving Asian community here, complete with markets, restaurants and various and sundry other shops. I've been to several of the restaurants over the years - including a really great Thai restaurant that is all of a mile from my house!! - but had never been into any of the grocery markets.
But today, after dropping off some prescriptions at Safeway, I decided to kill the 30 minutes of waiting time by heading to one of the markets to see what they had to offer. And, my god, but it was fabulous!
Multiple bottles of chili paste. And chili sauce. And chili paste sauce. Twelve different varieties of fish sauce in a wide variety of sizes. Soy sauce varieties included sweet, salty, light and thick. And thick & sweet soy sauce. And light and salty!
And that was just the canned/bottled food section. In the 'fresh' area of the market, there were pigs feet (ew. like. um. gross. Really.) and quail eggs - both raw and hard-boiled - and squid, octopus and shrimp, as well as packages of thai chillis and bundles of lemongrass with the signs written in Vietnamese.
And the noodles! You should have seen all the varieties of rice noodles available. And lots of wonton and rice-paper wraps for spring rolls.
And the very best part was, all this food was really cheap. The cans of coconut milk, for example, were .99 at these stores; at Safeway they're about $3.19. Lemongrass bunches are a couple bucks, at least, at the local grocery stores, but at the two Asian markets I went to, they were .99 for a huge bunch. Most spices were a dollar. And my beloved, favorite JuFran banana sauce was only 1.19.
I picked up a few items I'd been needing, as well as a few I didn't: like, Tom Yum soup base/seasoning. I tried this Thai soup for the first time several weeks ago and ... OH. MY. GOD.... SO. GOOD.
In case you haven't figured it out, I'm on a Thai fod kick lately. I'm not at all sure why - especially because I dislike intensely spicy foods - but I cannot seem to stop thinking about the various and sundry ways I could use coconut milk and/or thai curry paste or rice noodles and etc...
Maybe, if this web design thing doesn't work out, I'll go to cooking school....?
Comments
Hmm...sounds like we need to book a Thai outing when I'm home at Christmas! :)
Posted by: Amy | October 10, 2005 03:22 PM