We had quite a cultural weekend . . . One of the great things about living in such a big city is the cultural diversity. We spent Saturday running errands for Jons Fathers Day dinner (it was so tasty, I have to put it here - shrimp scampi pasta, artichokes, salad etc. and chocolate mousse and mixed fresh berry parfaits). We live in a very Asian area of town so our first stop was a new store Jon had found called H Mart. He had told me that they have great fruit and fish. I said Yay! But that if it stunk (literally), I was out of there! After entering the store, I realized we were the only non-Asian, lone English speaking ones there. It was like walking into another little country. I could write a whole page about that store, but won't. Jon was right. They had a seafood section about as big as a regular grocery stores produce area; shark fins, abalone, conch etc. They had great prices too. I had my camera, but since everyone was already looking at us like we were out of place, I didn't want to whip my camera out and start snapping. We also found some fresh lychees, a whole jack fruit and durian (the rotting flesh smelling fruit).
Our next stop was the Middle East at a store called Phoenicia. Again, we were the only non-Middle Eastern ones there. We spent about an hour in the store, and could have spend 5 days and not seen everything! We didn't even know what some of it was. But somehow Collin found the lamb head, lamb brains and tongue. As a side note, in his prayer that night he said, "Please help me not think of the lamb heads!" :)
In case you are wondering what Jon is eating in the picture - a smoked mackerel, lamb sausages, flat bread, crackers, cheese, stuffed grape leaves, hummus, lychees, assorted spreads and Turkish Delight (the kids were so excited to try that). Can you tell we had turned the TV on right before I took the picture? If not, look at where the kids are looking!
At Phoenicia they also had a lot of German and British items. We found these Kinder brand filled cookies called Happy Hippos. They caught my eye because they were so cute and when I saw the name I had to laugh. One of our favorite games is Hungry Hippos and Grace is always the pink one - named Happy Hippo (did you know each color had a name?). The kids thought they were so cute that we needed to take a picture before they ate them.
P.S. Grace's card to Jon said, "Dear DaD, I love you so much. Ispeshile (especially) on Fathers Day." :)
4 comments:
That sounds like Jon! I miss the days when he was coming out to LA a lot and we would go eat Ethiopian food. Collin and Grace look so cute and SO BIG! I want to try a "Happy Hippo!"
Jen- so great to see what's going on in your life! Moab looked so good, those photos of the kids after were hilarious. I can't believe your kids are so great at doing things like hiking and cooking- we're still trying to deal with tantrums! Houston looks like it's so much more diverse than El Paso. People from Dallas and Houston are always telling me how much better the dry heat is out here verses where your at, is it true? Hey I bet if you drive to Utah you will most likely pass through El Paso- please come visit we'd totally put you up and really have not many places to take you to. El Paso is great but there isn't so much to do out here. I think our "getting out" will be vacations. Anyhow this is getting so long I should have emailed! Later Yen!
I miss those experiences! I'm glad you are having fun! We should be down the first week of August'ish. I need to email you when I have specific dates...
This is what inspired me to cookt whole wheat pasta and try different vegetables!! I changed your blog name, I apologize for the offense, oh and I can do a blog a day, FOR NOW, while Roberto is home, we'll see if I can keep it up when he goes back to work! LOVE YA!!!!
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