asian markets and sweets

Yesterday was 'visit all the asian markets and get all the asian snacks while driving to visit my dad' day.  

Some highlights include seeing stickers that are really cute but I couldn't justify spending money on them since I have stickers and well - what do you do with them besides stick them...

I forgot what I thought about the spam musubi that I bought a long time ago from H-Mart.  Well, I bought it again and now I know that it's not that great.  The rice was plain with no flavoring added.  The egg and spam were flavorful, but honestly, the spam is too salty.  Too much sodium for me.  As I get older, I realize I can't handle the same things as before.

REMEMBER: Next time no more spam musubi.  It's not as good as I recall.

I hope to remember or read these notes next time to avoid buying them yet again.

The novelty / snack store (Fukuya) next to H-mart had so many kawaii stuff like tons of keychains, unbelievable amounts of snacks - decision paralysis!  I didn't buy any keychains but I did like glancing at them.

I got things I already know I like - lychee and strawberry gummies, and a new flavor (mango) mixed in with tried and true ones.  They were way cheaper there ($2.99 a bag) than at H-mart next door ($5.49!). 

I also got some dorayaki from Fukuya and when I asked a worker there, he said they were $2.99 (no price sticker).  However they rung up at $5.49 instead - they were cheaper and on-sale next door at H-Mart.  Lesson to learn : stick to products with price labels or be prepared for price shock.

At Kam man, I bought some dim sum.  There were egg custard tarts next to Portuguese tarts.  I got an egg one.  Also got some sesame rice balls and a container of bean curd rolls.  I thought the bean curd rolls were vegetarian but upon reading the ingredients at home, I see they are not - they include pork, shrimp, and possibly more stuff like beef.  There was something that tasted like salty creamy cheese inside too... 

LESSON TO LEARN : Avoid the bean curd rolls.  I should stay away from any 'complicated' dim sum items, and maybe just stick to things that can stay room temp all day.  Especially since I have a long drive home from the place of purchase.  Even after I microwaved everything, it seemed risky in hindsight.

Next time I could just get the white plain buns, and skip the other stuff (definitely anything containing meat, heavy oils, sauce, etc.).

Kam man has the usual bakery stuff but now they also have tons of mooncakes.  No idea which is the best brand.  I'll have to ask my dad one day - he'd know.

Editing to add - I called my dad later to ask him about mooncakes.  He said that the best ones are the ones made in USA (where we live) because they would be the freshest.  For example, the ones made in Hong Kong or Taiwan were made months ago.  Here in the US, they would be made closer to Moon Day.  They're not available yet at this time of year.  Made fresh to order closer to the holiday.

So I went to Costco and bought the only mooncake they sold.  May as well grab the other asian snacks nearby since the Costcos closer to me probably won't have them.  (The one near my parents obviously have more asian clientele.)

I'm saving the mooncakes (made in Taiwan) for next month, when it's actually Moon Day.  The mung bean one, made in Malaysia, is very pretty with its flower design, but the taste is meh.  It smells weird.  I guess because of the mung bean.  The castella cake is nice, and made in Japan.

EDIT: REMEMBER: Note to myself to not buy mooncakes anymore, because anyone I would gift them to would already have too many already.  And the people I live with don't like them.  This year only one person ate a quarter of a cake.  I wound up attempting to eat parts of the rest and now my stomach feels sick.  The egg yolk part is yuck - I ate around it.  The lotus bean part was okay at first, but now it's just too much.  There's still a whole cake left (expires February 2027 but who will eat it?).  Even though it's tradition, it's okay to skip it for the sake of everyone's health and sanity.  On the other hand, everyone did seem to enjoy the Aldi 7-up cake that I got as backup.  (It's round, like the moon.)

And I also went to Trader Joe's - to get kimbap, mini taiyaki, and jumeokbap among other things.  I miss having these stores closer so I really had to stock up a bit.  Until next time.  There was even another store I skipped (Ranch 99) - not enough time!

summer day

According to my dad, on this day, I (we) should not wear the following colors: red, white, and black.  He added that it's okay to wear one item in that color, but to avoid wearing an entire red outfit.  For today only, because it's the first day of summer (?) or something.  Sometimes it's difficult for me to translate what he's actually saying.  It's a Chinese belief and today has some meaning to it.  Well it's a good thing I called him today; I changed out of my pink shirt into a green-blue one.  I was actually wearing a pink shirt and blank pants - all the bad colors at once haha oh dear.

He also said to eat something that sounded like 'joong' in Cantonese.  An orange?  No, he said - I can't buy it where I am anyway.  Google is awesome - I searched what food joong is in Cantonese and discovered that it's a traditional Chinese sticky rice, covered with bamboo leaves.

With the first day of summer approaching, here's a recent photo of the weed/wildflower garden out back.  The sweet alyssum are the first to bloom.  Not counting the oxalis that's everywhere, some of which I've been trying to pull out but at this point may just give up doing so.  See that yellow peeking out - that's oxalis aka yellow wood sorrel - Google told me that.

Happy Summer Weekend!

nian gao

Here's my review of nian gao.  It's a glutinous rice cake normally eaten during Chinese New Year.  My mom gave me a package of them.  She said she can't eat them because they're problematic for her stomach.  My guess is that someone gave them to her and she passed them off to me.

I like chewy squishy stuff like gummy candy, gummy vitamins, and mochi, etc.  So I thought these would be good too.  However, they are not.  I do not like them.

In any case, so that we remember for next time, or for curious readers - here's my detailed review.

This is the kind that I received - Joy Luck Palace Lunar New Year Cakes - Glutinous Rice Cakes.  Joy!  Luck!  Palace!  It's customary to string together an assortment of positive sounding words for names of companies and businesses.  This is often seen in Chinese restaurant names.  Meanwhile, red and gold are auspicious colors.

There are 3 individually wrapped cakes inside the box.  Two are plain and one has red beans in it.  I decided to go with the plain one since that's the more common one.  I don't remember ever having the red bean version.  My parents used to fry the plain ones with egg.  I remember having versions with sweet potato or yam too.  Those cakes were much sweeter than this one.  Maybe my parents added lots more sugar when making them from scratch.

This one was really stuck in the plastic packaging.  I used a sharp knife and my powerful strength to dislodge it from the wrapper.  

This is how it looks after cutting up some of the pieces (less than half of the circle).  I microwaved them for a minute but they were still hard, so I added another minute.  Nobody else around me wanted to try any.  That's probably a good thing because then there'd be more people with questionable stomachs surrounding me.

They get softer and squishy after heating.  As fun as it is to poke them and all, it's not a good idea to have too much of these.  I tried googling to find out how much is too much.  Some sources say 2 small pieces.  I say just don't have any.  Do they solidify in the stomach and intestines and then get stuck?  I don't know - let's hope they did not this time.

I asked someone why they didn't want any.  They said it looks bad - like a stopper.  I asked why they thought it'd be bad for digestion.  Their response was, "I mean, f*king look at it."  LOLLLLL

Oh, and it didn't taste so great either.  It tasted like squishy plastic, very faintly sweet.  Perhaps it was residue from being encased in packaging so tightly and for so long.  I thought that it'd be sweeter since it was so brown, like brown sugar.  Alas, I was wrong.  Do not recommend.

Chinese new year

 Happy Chinese New Year!

This year I didn't buy any new year treats, because my mother gave me some.  There are pineapple cakes and the Isabelle assortment from Costco.  

It's the year of the horse.  The tin box has a nice cover sheet showing the contents inside - taro cakes, horse-shaped lychee mini cakes, and Ice Q cakes in peach and tangerine flavors.  I really like lychee fruit but haven't tried this particular cake yet.  I'm saving them for the end of this week when the whole family will be together again.  So far, I like the Ice Q cakes - they're squishy like mochi and slightly sweet.  We taste tested them last week.

happy lunar new year

Happy Chinese New Year!  Here are some treats, purchased from Costco.  Both sets are made in Taiwan, from the company, Isabelle.  The first set is the Year of the Snake assortment.  It includes snake-shaped matcha & red bean cakes, 2 flavors of ice q cakes (peach and tangerine), and taro cakes.

The peach cake is squishy like gummy candy and mochi.  It has a slight peach flavor and tastes ok.  The tangerine one, which I'm guessing is the darker orange one, has more flavor than the peach.  The taro cake is sweet, flaky and powdery.  It tastes ok.  The snake-shaped cake is creamy, and has a hint of a perfume-y or floral flavor.  The shell is like a thin mooncake.  The taste is ambiguous and odd to me.  In general, the assortment is very cute, but I probably would not buy it again.

The second set is a box of pineapple cakes.  The cookie part is crumbly and buttery.  The inside is chewy and sweet.  I like these and rate them to be 7/10.  I've gotten these before and will probably get them again sometime.