Yesterday JJ and I went out to Cary to have lunch. We also stopped by Trader Joe’s to see what all the hype was about. Thankfully, it DID live up to all its hype. However, we ended up not buying anything because as inexpensive as the stuff was, the lines were probably 40 minutes long. We did not need organic onions, nor a sea salt grinder, that badly.
On our way back we decided to try and find an Asian market we had passed and seen from the freeway. We didn’t know anything about it other than it was called Grand Asia Market and it seemed like it was the size of a grocery store. On a regular basis we shop at a little tiny Asian store and it serves our immediate needs: fresh tofu, Chinese vegetables, pot sticker wrappers, rice noodles and all for cheap. This market was a full-blown Asian market complete with ducks hanging on a rope, an Asian bakery where you can get steamed pork buns (YUM), and a variety of vegetables, sold in bulk so you can pick over them like you would over green beans at Harris Teeter. At the back of the store were over a dozen fresh seafood items. When I say “fresh” mean “still living.” Pick your fish, they’ll slaughter it for you, put it on ice, and send it home. Crabs that are still living, that you poke awake, put into a bag, take home and steam yourself. And on and on and on. JJ and I bought a bunch of stuff to make a traditional Chinese noodle dish and vegetables, plus some ingredients to make Chinese sticky rice, lo mein, pot stickers, and a couple of other things that I haven’t had at home, like lychees and Ai Yu Jelly (a Chinese gelatin dessert), since I lived in Wichita, so pre-college. It was like finding a seafood-smelling, noodle-selling, Chinese-speaking whole other world. We were happy about it. We’ll be back, probably in a couple of weeks.
Since New Year’s JJ and I have been making bread. We are using a no-knead recipe courtesy of the New York Times. I’ve modified it a little, instead of baking it seam side up, I shape it a little more, put it seam side down, and slash some lines in the top to allow for space to rise. And instead of putting bran or cornmeal on it, I brush the top lightly with olive oil and sprinkle on some coarse salt. I also don’t bake it as long – 30 minutes with the lid, and only 5 without – because that particular length of baking makes the bread very dark brown and JJ and I are much bigger fans of a pale yellow crust, than we are of a dark brown one. It’s fantastic bread and I make it about once a week. It takes time (12-18 hours of rising, about 40 minutes to bake) but very little work. More of a mix-and-leave sort of thing. Very tasty.
