Asian Market Munchies

On our extra day off we were nearly at a loss over what to do with ourselves, but one of Jeff's students suggested we go to the Chinese Cultural Center. "There are shops, and restaurants, and gardens," she promised. Now, Jeff and I envisioned some pretty nifty architecture, a museum, lovely contemplation gardens, etc. After all, we've been to similar places in San Diego and San Francisco. Surely, we thought, a city the size of Phoenix will have a comparable facility. Even the boy thought the outing sounded like fun, and we were all reassured by the interstate sign directing from the exit.

Unfortunately, the reality did not meet with our expectations. There were exactly two import shops, three Chinese restaurants sporting menus that looked like every other Chinese place we've ever eaten, and a winding walkway through some statues and reproductions of Chinese monuments. The garden area would have been much nicer if it hadn't fronted on the busy city street filled with traffic noise and fumes. There was one redeeming part of the adventure, though - a large Asian market. The last time we were in a full-scale market of this kind was when we lived in Las Vegas, where there is a large Asian population.

We spent the better part of an hour meandering up and down the aisles, reading labels and trying to figure out some of the more obscure items. Ultimately we brought home a small selection of snacks to try. I'll admit, we shied away from some of the items that seemed to call for an acquired taste, like cuttlefish jerky, freeze dried fish (They looked like minnows!), canned octopus tentacles, and preserved duck eggs. In addition, there were packages of all sorts of dried fruit, but only a few of them were identified in the name, and one had the type of fruit listed in the ingredients. Some had drawings of fruit on the front that were completely unfamiliar to us. The dried fruit was on the expensive side, and since we couldn't figure out what kind we had, we skipped it this time. But, here's what we did buy:


Mochi came in a wide variety of flavors including sesame, green tea, coffee, and seaweed. The food is a gelatinous ball that is filled with each flavor. The ball itself is the texture of raw cinnamon roll dough. The sesame flavor is rolled in seeds on the outside and sports a filling made from ground black sesame seeds. It was interesting, but not particularly good. On the package, the product looks like a candy, but the sesame flavor is definitely on the savory side.



The green tea flavored mochi was better than the sesame variety. It had a little sweetness to it, mostly from a dusting of powdered sugar on the outside. The filling on this one was more of a liquid-paste, but again the doughy consistency interfered with our enjoyment of the product. However, the green tea color and interior made this rather pretty when cut into little bites for sampling.



My son chose these little beauties which are mini (and I do mean teeny-tiny) pillows of a crunchy cookie shell with a dab of vanilla cream filling. These could be addictive and eaten by the handful. There were several flavors at the market including strawberry, chocolate, and hazelnut (which I would have opted for).



These rice crackers come wrapped in pairs and are very pretty with their scalloped edge and lovely pale color. They taste like compressed rice cakes, but better because there is a small amount of icing/glaze drizzled across the top adding a sweetness in juxtaposition to a salty after taste. It's hard to tell if these are supposed to be cookies or crackers, sweet or savory. Either way, I liked these alot and plan to toss them in my lunch box for conversation starters at school.



Being the chip fiend that I am, I could not pass up something as interesting as lentil flavored munchies. Unfortunately, they don't have much flavor at all. The are light and crispy like airy Pringles, but without a strong taste. They are seasoned with sea salt, though, which makes them a good chip snack, and they are healthier than fried potato chips. In the end, I'm sure I'll eat them, but I was disappointed that they didn't have an exotic taste.



These blueberry marshmallows are good and interesting. They are individually wrapped like candy, and each marshmallow is perfect ball, instead of the "normal" (American) cylindrical shape. The marshmallows themselves are plain vanilla, but inside each one is a soft, gummy blueberry center. These also came in a myriad of fruit flavors, which we would live to try.



Our final purchase came from the produce department which was filled with all kinds of greens I couldn't identify along with some vegetables I not normally available at Fry's, but common in some of the European vegetarian cookbooks I own. There was a wide selection of fruit ranging from several kinds of winter melons to baby bananas, papayas and mangoes sold individually and by the case. As soon as Jeff spied these persimmons (at only 99 cents a pound), he knew they'd be going home with us. (His mom makes a fabulous persimmon pudding!)