World Market

Posted by parker 6 months ago

Earlier this week, I found myself chasing down ingredients for a particular stir-fry recipe I am not yet at liberty to share. Three in particular turned out to be difficult: peanut oil (sesame oil is easy to find, peanut oil much less so), "Stir Fry Sauce" (a distressingly non-specific description), and stir fry noodles.

I may have been able to chase down all three at our local Whole Foods, but for some reason I convinced myself, instead, to drive a few miles more to the World Market, a small Asian grocery. This business used to be located in a nondescript cinder-block structure which would be considered a "shack" if it wasn't so concrete, sharing its parking lot with a porn store. Now it has moved to a more solid building with more reputable neighbors, and my own recent Asian experiences persuaded me to take a look.

I found my peanut oil and stir fry sauce without too much trouble, in an aisle which also featured cup noodles which will never be found in a mainstream American grocery store. (Every one, without exception, was labeled "Very spicy" or "hot".) The stir fry noodles were a bit tougher, because I needed "4-6 ounces" and all the packages were much larger than that. Eventually I discovered "yakisoba" which was sold in packs containing three 5-ounce packages, and since the packaging said "stir fry noodles" I assume this is what I wanted.

While there were many foodstuffs on inventory which I may never have call for (many different ways of packaging whole fish, for example, or fowl) I was intrigued by the spices, curries, and noodles available (including one brand from Vermont). I'll be back!