Jungle Jim's Food Finds

I finally made it to the international market! My mom and I went and got some goodies. The store was huge -- they had maps it was so large. It's an hour away and we decided we wanted to go around 5:30 on Sunday night. We didn't get back into town until 10. They had all sorts of fun and interesting things there. I did, however, have two failures. First, no burrata cheese. Second, no kaffir limes or lime leaves, which my Thai cookbook insists I should have. They seem very common in Thailand--it's entirely possible they had them and we just missed it.


Although I didn't get the burrata cheese, we did come home with a stash of cheeses. We bought a lot, but the cheese took up a significant portion of the final total. Cheese is pricey! The jar is actually not cheese, but double cream. I don't know what I need double cream for, but I'm certain that I need it. In the upper left, we have Oaxaca cheese. I was introduced to this cheese when I was in Mexico my senior year of high school. I have been searching for it for 10 years -- a whole decade, y'all! In the upper right, we have Stinking Bishop cheese, so named because it smells like dirty socks. Yuuuum. I like a stinky cheese. This may cross the line, but I had to try it.



Lemon grass for my Thai cooking. (I gave up the boy, not the food.)



This thing is called Romanesco, and it's in the cauliflower/broccoli family. It was a dollar, so we bought it. We're trying it tonight. With cheese.



Pork belly! Those top chef people use it, and so will we.


And finally the piece de resistance:

Pork hearts! We wanted to try something totally out there. I was deciding between beef tripe & pork hearts, but went with the hearts. At $3 for four hearts, I think it's worth the gamble. We'll let you know the outcome! (They also had pig snouts, cow's feet, and duck heads, among other things.)