Asian flavour

Inspired by Ani’s recent post about alternative ingredients I decided to explore the supermarket this morning after a 3-hour boring exam. The Asian supermarket is a scary thing. You can’t imagine what’s going on out there. There is an Indian section, a Japanese section, Middle-Eastern section and general Chinese stuffs. Don’t be surprised if there is little variety of cheese, bread or milk – they don’t eat such stuff. Normally, I’d buy some generic products to make a salad or a soup plus some hard to find dark bread (which comes in limited supply and is quickly sold out to hungry Westerners- I mean it happens in minutes and you have to fight for it hahah), but not today. Today, we are going to examine the debris of taste and smell. First, thing in basket: Indian yellow curry. A few weeks ago in Hong Kong I had the most amazing curry-potato-spinach-roti meal that every self-respecting vegan must learn to cook (not that I am a vegan). Second on the list comes tofu – I have never bought any packaged tofu before (simply because I don’t want to be frustrated again by finding out that the tofu I am eating was marinated in pig blood) but this one seemed decent and NOT marinated. Combined with young corn, sprouts and green beans in soya sause...mmmm! The rest was the usual – avocado (after 6 months in Central America I can’t live without it), lentils, beans, walnuts and tortilla bread. After filling the basket, I realized that I haven’t bought any dairy products (normally a must have) .. but oh well.. today will be a pure-protein, low-cholesterol day. The Asian supermarket hides many secrets. Just the variety of spices and mushrooms is scary, not to mention the hundreds of types of soy sauce, noodles and weird-ass-looking vegetables. I decided to conclude the experiment by buying a chestnut spread. Don’t know what to do with it and I am hoping that Google knows some interesting suggestions.