#10: MT Supermarket saves the day!

I had an appointment today in an area very close to the Chinatown area of Austin. After my appointment, I decided to go to the MT Supermarket to get some cake - which, unfortunately, they didn't have. I decided to go looking for pandan extract for my buns.

You know, you should never assume that other cultures are vastly different from your own. I finally found the rack that said "pandan extract" on the pricing, but I couldn't find anything that looking like it might be it. I don't understand Indonesian and I assumed a bottle that said "vaneli" to be the pandan extract based on the smell. Only later did it occur to me that it was surrounded by vanilla extract and that pandan extract is mainly known by the name pandan. Sigh. Well, just when I was ready to go, I decided to look around the cash registers because unlike regular impulse buy sections, oriental markets have a bunch of weird stuff there - lo and behold, my madness worked and I found my pandan extract.


Of course I wasn't brilliant enough to think that the bottles were not sold in packs of 6.


So I ended up buying 5 bottles more than I needed due to sheer ignorance. Anyone interested in a bottle of pandan extract? $2 per bottle +s/h. Among other cool things I found:


Yes. Octopus flavored chips. They're awesome.

#6 Ho! Wheat Starch

One awesome thing about the size of Austin is the variety of Asian grocery stores all within 20 minutes of each other. Needing to get some special ingredients for some sweet potato dumplings, I headed out early in the morning for the mega MT Supermarket. Since it's the largest market in central Texas, I figured it would be one stop shopping, right? WRONG!!! Despite the varieties of starch they had, they were missing my bloody wheat starch! One good thing to know is that when ingredients are that difficult, you have to even further specialize the market. What do I mean by that? Contrary to popular opinion, Asian is not another word for Chinese and my friend told me the MT Market is run by Vietnamese, if you get my drift. A little north of my place is a Japanese market: Asahi Imports I wouldn't go there looking for Chinese ingredients. Further north is a Korean market that probably couldn't offer me help as I am not familiar with the need for wheat starch in Korean cooking (or Korean cooking for that matter). I have to go for the hardcore stuff, and there's only one market I know that also happens to supply the most hardcore Chinese restaurant I know and that's Asia Market. While I can't declare it the only place in Austin that carries wheat starch, it's the only place I know of that definitely sells wheat starch. The cafe is now next to the market instead of inside. Go there and have some eggplant. As for the market - try the sesame seed balls and the crispy chicken dumplings, they make life nicer.