Also Love Asian Food

One of our favorite stores is Anh Dao, an Asian market in Charlotte. One of the reasons we love to go there is that we love the lady who works the cash register. She’s always happy to see us, very friendly, and has a beautiful smile. She’s half Vietnamese and half Japanese and speaks both languages. No matter what time of day you go she is always there. Another reason we love to go there is the reason we love any foreign market: it’s interesting! You don’t know what you’re looking at half the time and we typically buy at least one new thing to try.

We always visit the produce section first. They have great bunches of fresh mint, basil, cilantro, green onion, and other green veggies that I can’t pronounce the name of, and lots of limes, garlic, ginger, cucumbers, eggplants, etc. If we don’t know what a vegetable is we ask our lady friend; she tells us the name of it ( for example, ngo om or rao muong), but still we often don’t know what to do with it. So we say, “Can we add it to a stir fry?” and no matter what the veggie is she says “yes!” So far it’s always been good.

We like jasmin green tea and there are about 20 types to choose from.

We try not to eat sticky Asian rice (very refined carb) but it sure is yummy. We buy Basmati rice in bags this size but not at this store.

As if they didn’t already eat lots of rice there are about 100 products made from rice!

The freezer cases have many unidentifiable things, things Martha and Ken have been observing on the streets of Asia in person, but in this store it's mostly seafood…

1`````````````` (that was written by Lupe)
… and more seafood.

Some things are labeled in English but I still wouldn’t know what to do with them, like these lotus seeds and tapioca shreds.

Ahh…. Shirin’s heaven: sauces and more sauces.

Ok, I always thought “Cleatus” was the name of that character (in the Eddie Murphy movie) who farts all the time. There’s a cleatus cookie?

Crispy snack sounds good till you read closer…. anchovies.

And look at this sign for vegetarian food. You’d better read the packages carefully, though, because this package was in there…

… and last time I looked, beef tendon balls weren’t vegetarian!