While Jieqi was braving Mt Rainer this weekend, Kenneth, Shaun and I
took a bus towards Bellevue, where the Asian Food Center was. The surrounding
area is filled with restaurants and supermarkets specializing in Asian goods,
from food to medicine to pottery.
Our first order of business was lunch at the Little Garden, a Chinese
restaurant that served up huge portions of traditional Chinese dishes, including
kungpao chicken, stir-fried frog and sambal-fried long beans. We decided to
order individual dishes. I got a plate of fried beef hor fun, while Shuan
ordered a bowl of pork over rice crackers, and Kenneth, a bowl of chicken fried
rice. Much to our shock, the scrumptious food came in overwhelming heaps on
plates larger than our faces.
Chinese food!
We ate as much as we could, reminded of how long it’s been since we’ve
had authentic Asian fare, but in the end the portions were far too huge for any
of us. We packed up the rest of our food and left, all set for dinner later in
the evening.
Next, we went to the Asian Food Center Herbs & Gifts store, where
we bought a couple of air-tight containers and a pack of chopsticks for pretty
cheap. We hopped over to the actual Asian Food Center and toured around the
area. The place was packed with people of all races, and though some of the
fruits and vegetables on sale were quite questionable, we had a great time
locating items that we’ve had trouble finding in America thus far. These
include chilli sauce, sweet-and-sour sauce, traditional South-East Asian candies
like Rabbit Sweet and even cans of Thai milk tea. Some of the stuff really
brought us back to our childhoods.
Thai milk tea--in a can.
After we’d had our fill of reminiscing, we visited Goodwill, a shop
run by a non-profit organisation selling second-hand goods. The shop was pretty
huge, and was stocked with clothes for men, women and children; old VHS tapes;
pieces of tech from all across the last century; sports equipment; books for
99cents and comics for less. We found some interesting cameras and an old children’s
keyboard. I also bought a Billabong jacket that cost USD29.99.
Funky little contraptions.
We walked out on the streets only to find that we had missed our bus.
That was all the excuse we needed to pay a visit to the massive Fred Meyer
departmental store just across the street. Rows upon rows of shelves, each
filled to bursting with all sorts of delectable products, greeted us as we
walked about the store, overwhelmed by the variety of items on display. We even
found bottles of alcohol that were named after characters from The Hobbit. It
was hard not to grab anything and everything that was on sale. Fortunately, we
managed to overcome much of our temptations (except for Kenneth, who bought all
the Nerds candy he could find). Take that, effective product marketing!
Precious...beer...
Satisfied with our purchases, we headed back home and had our leftover
Chinese food for dinner.
The next day, Moses messaged me in the morning to say he wouldn’t be
joining me for Mass. I went and met up with Samantha and we went to St Jude’s
together. I was quite excited that they sang One Bread, One Body, because I had
yet to hear to choirs sing any hymns I was familiar with (despite the fact that
they also used Breaking Bread, like our choir sometimes does).
After Mass we went to the Redmond Town Center to find something to
eat. Unable to locate anything cheap but interesting enough for our tastes, we
decided to try BJ’s, which was a street and a carpark away. We resolved to
share a juicy bison burger, which really just tasted like beef but was still
awesome nonetheless. Unfortunately (and surprisingly) the burger wasn’t big or filling
enough for both of us, so we got a deep dish of fries covered in meat sauce and
peppers (I can’t recall the actual name of the dish). That really filled us to
the brim. We made our way back to our apartments at Gates of
Redmond, where a fat stack of homework still awaited us.
Would you like some fries with that?
Next week, a group of us are driving down to Portland, Oregon
to explore the area. So, till then, have an awesome week ahead.
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