We took my cousin and his girlfriend Megan out to my favorite Mongolian Hot Pot restaurant last night. We had fun catching up and hearing about her upcoming marathon! She did a half marathon and became addicted to running so she decided to sign up for a full marathon right afterwards. I really like her already – she is both girly and gutsy, just what my cousin E-man needs. She even surfs with him at 6am in Santa Cruz (it’s freezing… they have to wear wetsuits and booties). That girl plays no games! Although I feel the same way about running as she does, i’m not sure that I want to take the jump just yet! Although i’ve never had real knee problems, I get achy knees sometimes which worries me. The last thing I want is to get injured. After I run a couple of half marathons, i’ll decide when to take the plunge. It could be this year or in 5 years!
Into our hotpot went: Many types of greens (bokchoy, watercress, lettuce, a traditional mongolian vegetable), a white fish (I think bass), Shitake mushrooms and on the other side : Sliced beef and Udon
After Mongolian Hot Pot, I took my mom to see Ranch 99, a super asian market. It’s basically a super walmart sized asian grocery store. Matt’s mom shops here sometimes and when I didn’t have a job I would come along and ogle at the exotic ingredients. My mom rarely goes down to chinatown in NYC because of the dirtiness and hustle and bustle. We also have the BEST chinese restaurant in NYC on our corner, so we are spoiled. But there are definitely no asian markets near us in the city. She’s only been to small Asian markets so this was a real experience.
We took pictures like dorks tourists.
Look at those thick salmon steaks … mmm
Countless fish species * this word makes me sad because we are species too 😦
Sea urchin – how do you eat this?!
Oysters. Delicious and disgusting looking at once?
Cookies should maybe not be fried in my opinion. They should be peanut flavored though!
One product that I actually wanted to buy:
Organic Indonesian Tempeh. I wonder what makes Indonesian tempeh any different from other tempehs. Too bad this was frozen and our hotel room doesn’t have a freezer.
Sticky rice in a banana leaf (a.k.a. cantonese temale… I think they meant tamale) It’s so funny when things get lost in translation or just have ridiculous names. Kind of like this bun we saw at the bakery next door:
Youth Lava (Pesto) bun. This cracked me up!
The award for weird combo went to…
Would you any of you health blog peanut butter lovers give this a whirl?
This bun looked …furry!
It’s the time for mooncakes again. As a hapa, I am ashamed to say that I do not know the significance of these little pastries, other than the fact that they are eaten at the moon festival and it’s kind of a big deal. I will look this up!
Has any one had mongolian hot pot? If not, you must go.
What are your favorite ethnic grocery store items? At the asian supermarket, I like to buy: short grain japanese brown rice, red bean and green tea mochi ice cream balls, edamame, braised and smoked tofus, lychees, and obviously whatever eye-catching impulse items wind up in my cart.
Seen or eaten any weird food combos recently? I love sweet/savory combos like eggs with maple syrup (don’t knock it ’till you try it!)
Ruthie's Runs and Recipes 