Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Adventures at Super 88

You know you've matured as an Asian American when you start wanting things that can only be bought at a Chinese grocery store. As Ben and I have been getting settled in, we've made a list of Chinese groceries that we needed to make some of our favorite Chinese dishes (or at least attempt to). At the recommendation of one of my MA relatives, this past Sunday we found Super 88 Market in Boston's Chinatown. I remember actually looking at Ben and saying, "I'm so excited!" as we entered the store and breathed in that half-disgusting/half-delicious aroma of fresh fish, dried herbs, and various other products unique to Asian stores. We were happily filling our basket with lop cheung, sriracha sauce, dried black mushrooms, steamed fish sauce and more when all of the sudden the lights went out! It was about 6:30 pm, so it was still light outside, but since the windows were only at the front of the store, it was pretty dark in the back aisles where we were at the time. Everyone was a little startled and there were some Cantonese exclamations heard, but mostly everyone continued shopping in the near-dark, including us. We used our cell phones and keychain flashlight to look for more things. Then the manager announced that everyone needed to come up to the front and pay for their stuff and leave as soon as possible. So we went up, and I stood in line for several minutes (Ben ran off to find dumplings), until finally a security guard told us they were closing down for the day and everyone had to leave their groceries there and just leave the store. So, we were pretty disappointed that we couldn't take our treasures home with us. Oh, well. Just another day in Chinatown, I guess.

A quote from a crazy greek/hebrew professor heard by Ben during new student orientation: "We treat homework like quizzes, quizzes like exams, and exams like...the end of the world!" Goodness gracious. I think he was only half kidding, unfortunately.

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