International shopping...

I've been on a real bender lately for homemade international foods. I think I'm a pretty good cook, if I do say so myself, but it's too complicated and exhausting to make exciting dinners after Cole goes to sleep. We've been trying to eat healthfully, but I do get very bored of the two easiest dinners that fall under that category: grilled chicken & veg or stir-fry. That's when I resort to extra spicy homemade pizza or take-out, because my taste buds are sitting around, tapping their feet and rolling their eyes. I was noticing that when we eat out, we enjoy a wide variety of savoury and spicy international meals, so of course at home we'd be bored of mungie cake cuisine - fond as I am of good WASPy comfort food... :-)

So I've been trying to vary things up a bit with sauces, spices, marinades and such. I used to be more adventurous, when I had more time for cooking! So far this week we've had a red thai curry, butter chicken (my non-spicy inaugural Indian dish for Jamie, who has had a few bad experiences before) and Korean bbq beef stir fry last night. All have been delicious, and they've all been given two thumbs up from the resident (former) picky eater. Cole's only eating mush, so that would be Jamie. The only problem so far has been the butter chicken - it was amazingly good, but it took days to get the smell out of the house. It practically had to be exorcised. I have some udon bowls in mind next, some madras and satay marinades for grilling, and a few different Thai meals as well.

Part of the fun of making more interesting meals is revisiting some of my favourite international stores... I buy a lot of ingredients at our regular places - mainly Urban Fare and Whole Foods, just because they're on our daily paths, but for authenticity, I like to branch out... If you like Japanese snack foods, visit Konbiniya Japan Centre on Robson - there are about a million kinds of Pocky there, and they're open until 2 AM in case you're desperate...

I've been in love with H Mart, the Korean grocery store on Seymour, since my first trip there last year. They have the best selection of all your favourite Asian food items - and the most hilarious sweets & candy selection, including my new favourite - Hi Chew. Kind of like Starburst, if you replaced it's waxy oilyness with a more spongy, gelatinous texture. Really good, actually! Their website graphics are enough to make me buy a plane ticket. Oh, the glorious wackiness... The graphic designer in me loves the whole hearted commitment these products make to be enticing.

I also found some amazing glass food storage containers there yesterday - Glass Lock. They are glass on the bottom with an air-tight plastic lid. I'm not yet militant about plastic for food storage, but I really like the idea of not using it whenever I can. Old Pyrex dishes with the glass lids don't exactly seal well, so these are great! They simultaneously promise to be "almost unbreakable" and "semi-durable", so we'll see how they go.

I am sometimes a little overwhelmed by inability to read what I'm buying though... I nearly bought some rice crackers that promised "sea taste" which I thought sounded good, but alas, that meant cuttlefish flavour - aka squid -and that is a little too international for me. And I got a kitchen sponge because I thought it was cute and we needed a new one. It had a grouchy looking man on the front that looked as though he meant real business, but when I opened it I realized that it was some kind of magic eraser style cleaning product. It did remove the stroller scuff marks from our wall, and although I thought it might also be removing the paint, in the light of day all looks well...

I'm still on the hunt for some appropriate bento trays. Not boxes, but the open-top tray that you get at a medium-quality sushi place. I think they'd be fun to eat snacks out of at home - I am not adventurous enough to bother making my own sushi... I think they'd make good divided dishes for kids too - lightweight and unbreakable. No luck so far at Daiso or any of the other places I've tried, so I might just order some off the internet. Daiso - the 100 Yen ($2) store in Richmond - did yield some other delights though, including a few adorable bowls for Cole and some tea towels and baskets, all made in Japan.