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.

I'm a Slob

Here's a fun fact about me: I'm kind of a slob.

I'm one of those people that constantly puts off cleaning until everything is an overwhelming disaster, then puts it off even longer because the thought of cleaning up a mess of such heart-stoppingly immense scale is enough to induce a a fit of the Victorian-era-style vapours. When things become unlivable, I clean nonstop for several days, vow to keep my apartment tidy from now on... and then immediately fail to do so. Rinse. Repeat.

I am currently unable to cook because of the insane level of mess in my kitchen, so now seemed like a good time to post a little instructable about cleaning kitchens I made for class. 

Here it is:

Meet the Parents

You know what I love about my parents besides the fact that they raised me to adulthood without major incident? Whenever I go to their house, they send me home with food. And I made out pretty good last weekend when my boyfriend and I went over there for the dreaded meet-the-parents dinner. 

Results: They like him! And I get to put on grocery shopping for a few more days. 

My parents have been trying out this service called Blue Apron. Basically, you pay Blue Apron and, a few times a week, Blue Apron sends you a recipe and the ingredients you need to make it, all measured out for you and ready to go. The only things you need to bring to the table are salt, pepper, olive oil, and the ability to follow directions. 

So, my parents sent me home with a few of the Blue Apron meals they hadn't gotten around to making yet and I gave it a go. 

Mexican Chicken Mole with Lime-Cilantro Rice

I took everything out of the bag and here's what it looked like:

 

Pretty neat, huh? I could get used to this. They really do include everything. On the flip side, my mom claims that this stuff had been in the fridge for, like, two weeks by this point. Everything still looked and smelled absolutely fresh, which is a little weird. But who am I to complain? FREE FOOD.

 
 Anyway, all I had to do was chop everything up and follow the directions.... and viola! Food.

They even included directions about how to garnish the plate. No kidding. Looks pretty delicious, if I do say so myself (and I do say so myself). 

My boyfriend and I sat down to enjoy our meal, and, I have to be honest, ew. Just... ew. To be fair, the chicken part was pretty good. I won't say it was amazing, but it was good. The rice, on the other hand, was unholy.

My boyfriend kept trying to compliment me on the food because he's polite, but I just kept trying to give all the credit to Blue Apron because I didn't want the responsibility for that disgusting rice on my conscience.

The recipe called for 2 tsp. lime zest (the whole peel). While the zest certainly made the rice look fancy, it made the rice taste like soap scum. I have to say, I resent Blue Apron for making me peel that lime. It took me probably 10 solid minutes to do it, and, in the end, all it did was ruin a perfectly good side dish. All in all, not my favorite dish I've ever cooked.

But on the other hand, I made cookies! And cookies are never a mistake. 

I used this recipe and put in milk chocolate chips. It may actually be, as the link says, the best chocolate chip cookie ever.

The only thing I would add is that baking them at 325 degrees for 10-12 minutes isn't really enough. I like an underdone cookie, but those cooking directions make for a just-barely-melted cookie. 12 minutes at 350 degrees is just about perfect.

They were supposed to be guilt cookies (side note: cookies are a great manipulation tactic), but they never made it out of the apartment. We ate them all. I don't even regret it. They were some damn fine cookies.