My Asian Market Adventure

For those of you who have not had the pleasure of international chocolate...my heart weeps for you. Yesterday I found some addresses for Asian markets in our little area of Georgia. We couldn't find the first store, it was a sushi bar instead, so maybe that address was not so current. We then went to the international farmers' market, which looked kind of abandoned. A lot of the shelves were empty, even in the cooler section. But, as we got toward the back, there were some more products. A lot of them were random, and there were lots of preserved duck eggs in the Japanese section. I, unfortunately, was looking for quail eggs in a can. So, we left empty-handed. Then we went to the Atlanta Chinatown mall; surely I would find a bento there. Nope. We did find a neat grocery store though. I got some chocolate pocky, and BJ got some strawberry pocky. Hence the fun pictures. I also bought a sheet of seaweed to try. See, bento makes me want to try new things! The grocery store was really packed full, but I didn't like the vibe; I felt kind of like an invader. So we went to our fourth and final Asian market, Super H Mart. It was really cool in there. Everything was nicely laid out, I could find things because they had both English and Japanese on the signs. This was where I found quail eggs in a can and some bento sets, but I didn't really like the selection. At last, success! It was a nice store and also the people working there were friendly. I even saw some more white invaders like myself buying some stuff. It was both fun and exciting. And the candy selection...! It was really cool. There were so many different things to choose from. BJ picked up a baby ruth, but I had to be adventurous, so I got some new Japanese chocolaty stuff. See, I took a picture for you.
They are really shaped like fun little mushrooms, and it's the same kind of thing as the pocky. The stem is that semisweet cracker biscuit type thing, but the top is like a mixture between chocolate with just a little bit of caramel. It's lovely. You can see the little color division on the box and on the candy to let you know there is a little something extra in there. One of the things I like about the Japanese chocolate I have had is that the taste is always very subtle, not very "in your face with chocolaty goodness!" And of course, I imagine all of you are just waiting with baited breath to see just what quail eggs in a can actually look like. Ta dah! That is a nickel on the right next to
one of the quail eggs. I opened up the container and dumped it into a glad container that I could keep in the fridge. I read on a website even though they are already hardboiled, you can chuck them back in boiling water for five minutes to enhance the flavor. I tried one cold last night and it was pretty good. It was actually a lot like a boiled egg; the taste was just slightly different. So I can't wait to see what these suckers taste like actually cooked. I know many of you are checking to see if you have a fever as my willingness to try new things must be a delusion brought on by serious illness. Another thing that I was looking for was something called sticky rice. Apparently it's the best kind of rice to use to make onigiri, aka rice balls, and I couldn't find anything that said sticky rice. BJ and I decided to try it with something called sweet rice, and after a happy internet search I found an alternate name for sticky rice is...SWEET RICE! I am thrilled. The basmati rice I tried it with the other day was a total bust, so now I just need to try the sweet and see how it goes. We also saw this awesome BLACK rice at the supermarket. It's also referred to as forbidden rice *convenient ominous laugh.* It has a black-brown color uncooked and darkens to a purple black when cooked and can be use to make...ONIGIRI! Stay posted. On our next episode of Scatterbrained daydreams, I just might have some onigiri photos. Or maybe the post after that...I might get busy... Later!