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.)

Asian Market Hunt of '10: Target Identified

I have found my Asian Market, and I had no need to go to multiple markets looking for a decent one. I was talking to the departmental secretary, and she told me about Jungle Jim's in Ohio. Based solely on the website description (it will probably be a few weeks before I make it there myself), Jungle Jim's bears close resemblance to my idea of heaven: Forty varieties of rice, 78 types of olive oil, fine chocolates from the world's great chocolate makers, and, most amazingly, 1400 different cheeses!

As for the Asian department, they claim to have everything you need, "from soy sauce to rice vinegar to dried squid to kim chee and cans of caterpillars." Surely I can find what I need there. I can't wait to visit!

Asian Market Hunt of '10: A Preview

Not surprisingly, there do not seem to be any Asian markets in Richmond. (That's Indiana, for all of our many followers out there, not Virginia.) I have tentatively identified a few possibilities, none closer than an hour away. Given that I had to go to three Asian markets in Greensboro before I found a decent one, I'm expecting this to be a drawn out hunt. Wish me luck!