Shop Till You Drop (some cash) in Madison Asian Groceries!!!!

Well heavens be praised: my second #1 son graduated from college this past Saturday. This being a general occasion for happiness and celebrating and getting choked up with tears frequently, it also provided me with the chance to revisit Asian groceries in Madison Wisconsin, the scene of much past hilarity and overspending on way-too-good Asian grocery items I cannot find at home.

Here are some of my favorite finds:



Clockwise from left: Dried shiitake at a bargain price, nori, curries green and red, and coconut milk & cream, Mama and Mami noodle soup mixes, and panko bread crumbs - I've never found these before and can't wait to cook some really kick-a$$ fried shrimp with the famous delicate crumb coating that everyone dies for...

And then...



Alluhz my sauzes: Again clockwise from back, Thai hot chili sauce, smoky dark soy sauce, mushroom flavored soy sauce, wasabi mayonnaise in a Kewpie mayo squeeze bottle!!; in the blue bottle, black sesame salt (like furikake?), nanami togarashi (my favorite delicate Japanese red chili peppers ground), prepared plum sauce - bet it will be better than my prune stuff!, and black pepper corns.

And then:



My sweet tooth indulgences:

Sweet layer cakes in pandan flavor??, black coffee candies?, almond Pocky!, crazy good chocolate mushroom cookies, chocolate filled Hello Panda! cookies, and coconut rolled cookies you can just barely see - like Pirouline cookies made in England if you know these. Most of these came from a Vietnamese dominated store that had a verrry dark seafood freezer cabinet, kind of scary.

And last but actually first:



Because one of Avie's video blogs stressed the importance of having a little travel Bento spoon-fork-chopsticks combo, I had to buy this Cinnomoroll one in pink. If Avie told me to jump off a bridge I probably would, assuming there would be some cool reward.

Anyway a wonderful coffee atmosphere exists in Madison so here's two last photos of a terrific coffee and cookie experience from a very emotional weekend:

Yummy Cream Cookies from Avie

These little bear cookies were so good! They had a chocolate cream filling, and each little bear-shaped cookie was stamped with a picture of a bear doing something different: dancing, eating honey, sleeping...in all they were so fun I hated to eat them except for the nomminess. Thanks Avie!

This bento was an idea I got from Honey She's Twisted: to make anything more nutritious, just add spinach or greens. I had this lovely lacinato kale, and some leftover basmati rice, so I just stirfried some green onion and ginger in sesame oil, threw in the chopped kale for a few minutes, threw in the rice and some soy sauce, then made the little cave in the middle of the wok and cooked up two eggs in the cave, then mixed it all together.

It was dynamite! Great tip Honey. I'll be doing this a lot. I love greens like spinach and kale and chard, but sometimes a great pile of them on a plate is daunting.