Asian Fusion

The little boys and I grabbed groceries at Walmart today.  I was wanting some crunchy chow mein noodles to make an Asian salad with but Walmart was out.  So when we got done at Walmart, I thought we'd try the one Asian market in our town.  By my best guess, it's actually a Vietnamese store so I wasn't sure if they would have chow mein noodles but I have often thought I'd like to stop in and this seemed like a good opportunity to do just that.  Definitely made me think of a little Asian shop stall in a place like China or Vietnam.  Every shelf was full of noodles and jarred sauces, all sorts of stuff you can't usually get at an American supermarket.  Occasionally, there was a can of Dole pineapple or Del Monte peas.  Freezers and refrigerator cases stuffed full of shrimp, pork, and tofu plus things like lemongrass and ginger.  I didn't even notice the live crabs that were sitting in a cardboard box on the floor by the checkout until we were waiting to pay.  We didn't find our chow mein noodles but we did get lunch:  ramen-like chicken Pho (just add water), a homemade container that by the American writing on it was supposed to contain pork blood but instead was full of pickled vegetables (carrots and daikon radish, I think), and a homemade red bean paste bun.  I am apparently feeling ethnic today since I almost bought plantains at Walmart to do Banan Peze (fried Haitian style plantains).

Zeke ate two huge helping of the Vietnamese Pho.  He also really liked the vegetables which from my quick little bit of research are just veggies in rice vinegar, salt, and water.  Kai also ate the carrots which I thought was pretty funny considering they were pretty darn sour.

Bean paste buns are a common Chinese item.  It's a sweet bread filled with a sweet bean paste and sprinkled with black sesame seeds.  It's not super sweet, as most Chinese pastries are not.  It also has the often used Asian twist of sweet and savory together.  Maybe it was 5 Spice powder I was tasting?  Zeke thought it was great.