1st Oriental Supermarket: Best Thing Ever? (hint: the answer is "yes")

Two weeks ago, my boyfriend and I decided to take a recommendation from some friends who claimed they had found the best phở in the area (phở being a Vietnamese noodle soup). So we found ourselves in South Philadelphia at Phở Ha. And, oh, what a wonderland we had stumbled upon.

First of all, Phở Ha is located in a shopping center which contains only phở restaurants. No kidding, it's just Phở Ha and about 8 other places that serve phở. This shopping center seems to be operating outside the laws of reality as I understand them. How do all of these restaurants not drive each other out of business when they all quite literally share a wall with direct competitors on both sides? I have no idea. It's delightfully weird.

But more importantly! Right across the street we spotted an Asian grocery store called 1st Oriental Supermarket. So after we ate our phở (which was, as promised, delicious) we headed over there.

OK, I just have to say right off the bat that 1st Oriental Supermarket may just be my favorite thing ever. It's huge and it stocks all kinds of crazy stuff and it even has a parking lot. We walked around the store for a solid hour, going up and down every single aisle, marveling at everything.

Then we bought a ton of ramune (which is a Japanese soft drink that Wikipedia tells me is supposed to be lemon-lime flavored, but tastes for all the world exactly like bubblegum to me) and Japanese candy and went home and ate it all in one sitting.

To quote my very articulate boyfriend, "Everyburger, I need you inside me." We had no choice.

But then, last weekend, we went back so I could buy ingredients to make Japanese food and take pictures. Here's a few of those:

I have no idea how one might go about transporting a live eel to one's home, but the option is certainly available.

I can understand the blood, but what does one do with bile?

Also, I give you these ridiculous shots, which resulted from a combination of the hilarity my boyfriend and I inexplicably find in whole, roasted ducks and my boyfriend's complete lack of ability to feel embarrassment.

My boyfriend insisted that the man who worked behind the duck counter take these picture for us. But this purveyor of ducks spoke literally 0 words of English and, as far as I could tell, had never operated a phone camera before.


Here's a picture that was accidentally captured while my boyfriend was trying to show the duck guy how to use his phone camera:

I freely admit that this picture is included only because it is uncharacteristically flattering.

And here is one of the awkward shots the duck guy took for us after my boyfriend abandoned his attempts to pantomime that he wanted the duck guy to move around to the left in order to get the ducks in the frame:

And here is the picture of me and the duck guy that my boyfriend insisted we take:

This picture exists solely because my boyfriend feeds off of the discomfort of others like some kind of embarrassment vampire.

And here is a ridiculous selfie my boyfriend took in front of the whole, roasted ducks:

The duck guy was incredibly gracious.

Anyway, during all of those shenanigans, I did somehow manage to procure the ingredients for Nabeyaki Udon, so I'll be posting about that very soon.