Saturday, July 9, 2011

Fun at the Asian Market


Recently, I've been trying to incorporate more veggies into my diet (it's healthier!). Part of that has been trying to cook more Asian food, as I find it easier to sneak more veggies in a lot of Asian dishes. The summer class I'm teaching begins on Monday and I am currently engaged in meal planning as part of 'Operation: Avoid Sandwiches for Lunch'. I don't have easy microwave access on campus, so I've decided to try making a lot of cold noodle dishes as a way of bringing veggie-heavy lunches that don't require reheating.

So, today I went to the Asian grocery to stock up on some things I was missing or getting low on.
I think that the Asian grocery can be overwhelming for some people, if they don't have much experience cooking Asian foods. Through various means (including Chinese roommates and a trip to China and Japan), I'm lucky enough to have a fairly high degree of passive knowledge of useful things to get at an Asian market (although that doesn't mean I don't sometimes need to make an emergency phone call to a friend for help while at the store).

I have a few standard Asian dishes that I make a lot -- a Teriyaki dish with edamame that I love and Shrimp Lo Mein. (I tend to add more vegetables to the recipes than the originals include.) Recently, I've had some vague plans to try out a recipe for Sichuan Eggplant, a dish I have enjoyed many times but never tried to make at home. So, between the Sichuan Eggplant and my new obsession with cold noodles, a trip up to the big Asian market here in Austin (MT Supermarket) was in order.

Can I just say: I love the Asian grocery? The one I went to in college (in State College, PA) was extremely tiny, with narrow, narrow lanes stuffed to overflowing with products I did not recognize. MT Supermarket is *massive*. Not as big as the Asian groceries that you'll find in San Francisco, but easily as big as my local 'regular' grocery store.

I think that the easiest way to approach the Asian grocery is to make a short list of things you definitely need but then to let yourself explore a bit and get a couple of random things to try. If you've not really tried many Asian dishes, I'm going to try to post more Asian recipes in the next few weeks, so it'll give you something to try out!

I always get overwhelmed in the big Asian groceries -- there are just so many yummy things and I experience a bit of sensory overload. I try not to get too much stuff while I'm there because I tend to get overexcited and wind up with more stuff than I could ever use. This was today's haul:



The produce there tends to be a lot cheaper than the produce at my local grocery, so I picked up some Chinese broccoli ($1.69/lb), red peppers ($1.99/lb), carrots ($1.69/lb), a Daikon radish ($.79/lb), bean sprouts ($.75/lb), scallions, and shitake mushrooms. They don't sell the long, thin Chinese eggplant at my local grocery (that's what I went for initially -- to make the Sichuan Eggplant). Spices are also cheaper, so I got a big bag of star anise (only $.99 for a fair amount of anise).

Other than that, there's a myriad of noodles! I always get fresh Chinese egg noodles while I'm there, plus I stocked up on Udon noodles and wheat noodles for making various cold noodle dishes. The big Pho noodles are excellent for all kinds of stirfries when you don't feel like using rice (make sure there's enough sauce though). I'm still learning about different kinds of noodles, so I like to buy a lot of different kinds and try things.

One of the things I'm planning on making in the next couple of weeks involves Dashi which is a kind of Japanese soup stock made of kombu (kelp) and katsuobushi (shavings of preserved, fermented tuna). You can buy pre-made Dashi , but I could not for the life of me find it, even in our massive store, so I'll have to make my own (which I'm weirdly excited about).

I also got some fun things to put on cold noodles -- like little strips of seaweed, roasted sesame seeds, and wheat gluten -- and several ingredients that I was missing or low on -- like Chinese black vinegar, Mirin (a sweet Japanese cooking wine), and Oyster sauce.

Finally, on the recommendation of a friend, I got tiny, tiny shrimps to use in cooking -- she told me to add them to the oil when I'm sauteeing garlic or ginger to deepen the flavor of the dish. I'm excited about that!

If you haven't been to your local Asian market, go ahead and check it out. A lot of the produce and spices are much cheaper than you'd find them at a 'regular' supermarket. And it's really easy to make fresh Asian food at home -- you can save money by avoiding Chinese takeout and incorporate more fresh veggies into your lunches and dinners.

No comments:

Post a Comment