Ah ... a Most Cross-Cultural Experience...

Once in a while I go to a Vietnamese supermarket in Lakewood which I absolutely love. First off, none of the workers speak English, except a young Asian gal who is a cashier. It's funny having to point and "play charades" with someone to describe that you are looking for canned anchovies rather than dried ones. I finally was led to a jar of anchovies ... I think.

       And the smells in the market are phenomenal. Go from one aisle to the next and it smells like raw oysters to soy sauce to sambal (spicy) sauce to Asian sweets. Many of the items on the packed shelves are completely unfamiliar to me. Check out the picture from yesterday for one such item: Fried-Gluten Vegetable Minced Pork. Yummy! Let's buy a can.
       The other thing that cracks me up is watching Vietnamese, Thai, and other Asian women standing in front of the fresh fish case seemingly debating about which fish to buy. Several of these languages are tonal in pronunciation so their conversation sounds to me like aliens trying to figure out how to live on earth.

       The other day when I was in the store two older Vietnamese women were talking, presumably about the taste of the fish in front of them. Here's a picture of the fish which was "staring" at them as they had their lively conversation! One of them was seemingly insistent on buying this fish. Other other seems to have wanted to buy the Saba fish. I wish that fish in the case could speak; I'd love to know his perspective on it all!