april 14, 2002

volkswagen, apple and new balance
on the way to chinese shopping at diho supermarket.

angel cafe
the only attempt (and a lame one at that) to decorate one of the many restaurants and cafes at any chinese strip mall that i've witnessed.. i think they sell boba (bubble) tea here and are targeting younger crowds.

another bubble tea joint
all these little cartoons from asia feature caucasian characters.

chinese video store
marry a rich man? ok!

pony cuts
mom likes to get her hair cut by chinese people.

diho supermarket: housewares
this is where i get chased down and yelled at by the manager for taking pictures of her pretty oriental style dishes that are a third the price of the same types of dishes you find at sur la table or similar places. she asked me why i was taking pictures and if i was opening a supermarket. i said no and that i was taking pictures for a photo project. then she said she was going to sue me. so i told her i would delete the picture to make her happy. i was just going to pretend to delete it, but then i accidentally did delete it.

hong kong supermarket (where they don't yell at you for taking pictures)
vietnamese dessert beverages feature tapioca, gelatins, sweet beans, syrup and pretty colors.

indian bitter melon
so pretty and delicate. but bitter.

foreign greens
pictured here are huge stalks of aloe vera and a spongy vegetable (that kind of scares me) called bac ha.

i'd say about one third of the produce at this market i've never seen or heard of before. mom and i wonder what all these new culinary delights taste like, so sometimes we sneak a pinch or a leaf and take a nibble. sometimes we like, sometimes we don't.

red cabbage
more like purple.

what's that smell?
why, it's dried mudfish!

bamboo shoots in water
i love bamboo.

hmmm
do i know what authentic chinese tastes like?

blue crabs
i love crabs. you know, the edible kind. mom only likes female crabs. these are all males. you can tell by the shape of the shell on the underside of the crab. females have a rounded shape and males have a sharp pointy part. you can see it on the crab in the bottom left.

saved the best for last
mom is certain these are underdeveloped chicken eggs. i'm thoroughly disgusted now.