Chinatown

I had been meaning to go back to Chinatown and poke around the grocery stores there ever since I started reading Grocery Ninja and Snapshots From Asia by Wan Yan Ling. I had previously been mostly interested by the trinket stores, but not this time. I really wish I knew someone who is familiar with Asian cooking so I could ask them what all these strange things are and how they're cooked, and learn how to cook Asian food in general. It's so yummy! I guess I'll have to settle with going to restaurants to get my Asian food fix. When I was there, I wandered into one grocery store with Asian singing playing and there was a woman at the back with a microphone standing in front of a freezer of frozen fish speaking in a soft voice over the loudspeakers, promoting specials on fish or something like that I assume. At one side of the store, past the butcher's counter, was another door that exited to the inside of a mini-mall with clothing stores and hairdressers, and a wide staircase going up the middle to the Red Ruby restaurant, which took up the entire second floor, and was packed with people. I was too shy to take any pictures, but it looked like a great place. Right at the top of the stairs was a takeout counter, and beside that another counter and display case with several freshly roasted chickens and ducks and other meats, and a girl chopping them up to order. It smelled amazing! I'm going to go there to eat with someone someday, as well as every other restaurant in Chinatown. I love trying new foods, and I love Asian food, with the exception of spicy things. Now I just have to find someone to go with. I'll drag my friends out one by one lol.

Some unidentified frozen goods:

Have no idea what these dried things are:



Fresh veggies and frozen stuff:



Some nice graffiti on Rene-Levesque Boul.:



Pig uterus! Lol:

Pig tripe:

Quail eggs:

The butcher counter in one of the stores, those bags of things on the left corner of the counter are chicken feet :P

Take-away counter, with various unidentified goods:

Here are the chicken feet on the right, all crispy and yummy looking. I'm gonna try these when Lent is over :D

Freshly roasted meat:

This restaurant had prepared food on display in the window, I've never seen a restaurant do that:

And some baked goods in a window:

And here's what I brought home, some shrimp spring rolls, 2 kinds of mochi, tempura batter mix, lots of ramune, and fortune cookies:

Here's the fresh mochi, the texture outside is very sticky and glutinous, like a cross between jello and a gummy bear, very plain flavored, with coconut flakes, and the inside is soft sweet bean paste: