I write about food a lot, I guess. But only because food is so interesting here!
On one hand, the markets are filled with things that Americans just don't eat: parts of animals that are not used and entire species that aren't eaten. That is immediately striking and also the most obvious thing. Asian markets in the US are filled with all of that good stuff. Here, every market is like one of those but much more intense.
But at the same time, even by the completely excessive American standards of processed and packaged food, the packaging and variety of prepared of foods is really astonishing. In the large, modern markets, which are American style supermarkets, you can buy an overwhelming amount of things in already prepared packages.
I have stumbled on some new foods that I now love unconditionally. One is sliced dried octopus. Essentially this is octopus jerky. It is hard to conceive of a better food.
The other is pre-sliced and packaged strips of laver seaweed, the wrapping used for rolls. I thought the preslicing was odd at first, but that was before I found that these surpass the regular sized sheets because they are also oiled and heavily salted. Hard to go wrong with that combination. Truly delicious. You can eat a large brick of about 50 of these packages in a single sitting without batting an eye.
On one hand, the markets are filled with things that Americans just don't eat: parts of animals that are not used and entire species that aren't eaten. That is immediately striking and also the most obvious thing. Asian markets in the US are filled with all of that good stuff. Here, every market is like one of those but much more intense.
But at the same time, even by the completely excessive American standards of processed and packaged food, the packaging and variety of prepared of foods is really astonishing. In the large, modern markets, which are American style supermarkets, you can buy an overwhelming amount of things in already prepared packages.
I have stumbled on some new foods that I now love unconditionally. One is sliced dried octopus. Essentially this is octopus jerky. It is hard to conceive of a better food.
The other is pre-sliced and packaged strips of laver seaweed, the wrapping used for rolls. I thought the preslicing was odd at first, but that was before I found that these surpass the regular sized sheets because they are also oiled and heavily salted. Hard to go wrong with that combination. Truly delicious. You can eat a large brick of about 50 of these packages in a single sitting without batting an eye.
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