Thuan Phat

After our early dinner at the "Original" Sab e Lee, we headed over to Thuan Phat, which is just down the street on Linda Vista Road. This used to be Vien Dong III. I love it here - especially their cheap produce (herbs are only .59 a bunch!)

I wanted to make Goi Mit Tom Thit (Jackfruit salad). The version we had at Que Huong served it with this, toasted rice cracker. Here's Wandering Chopsticks' recipe for this as well.

In the refrigerated cases, TC and Bert picked up two different desserts...

I liked the jellied stuff (agar agar) in here along with palm nuts. It's kind of like Vietnamese Halo Halo but without ice.

This was the other dessert:

The fruits in here were lychees and sliced jackfruit.

I also picked up Mong Toi (Malabar Nightshade), which in Filipino is also known as "alugbati". My parents grow several types of this vegetable in their backyard.  When steamed, the leaves have a pretty "green" mild flavor. There is also a mucilaginous quality to it. I like how my mom prepares this. This was the first time I bought this by the way.

I wanted to make Patola (Filipino ginger based chicken soup) so I picked up some young ginger...

Here's purple perilla. According to wikipedia's entry on "Perilla"...

"Vietnamese cuisine uses a variety similar to the Japanese hojiso but with greenish bronze on the top face and purple on the opposite face. The leaves are smaller and have a much stronger fragrance than hojiso. In Vietnamese, it is called tía tô, derived from the characters (紫蘇) whose standard pronunciation in Vietnamese is tử tô. It is usually eaten as a garnish in rice vermicelli dishes called bún and a number of stews and simmered dishes."

This is Rau Ram (Vietnamese coriander) which I needed for the green jackfruit salad.  Here's some info from wikipedia's entry on "Persicaria odorata".

"The leaf is identified with Vietnamese cuisine, where it is commonly eaten fresh in salads (including chicken salad) and in raw summer rolls (gỏi cuốn), as well as in some soups such as canh chua and bún thang, and stews, such as fish kho tộ. It is also popularly eaten with hột vịt lộn (fertilized duck egg, known as balut in the Philippines).   Ooh Balut!

I bougt two types of green jackfruit here. The third one I already had in my pantry (which I bought from North Park Produce). They cost only .89 here. At North Park, it was $1.29.  I think I like the Richin brand the best. The jackfruit pieces were pretty firm and not mushy at all.

Also picked up from Thuan Phat was this package of Lotus Root. These don't have much of a flavor by themselves and I still haven't figured out how to eat these.

I like how they look...

They reconfigured the checkout lines at Thuan Phat. Instead of straight lines, there are now "L-shaped" barriers which contain all kinds of impulse purchase items like gum, candy and this, jackfruit chips!

Here are the chips in a container. They are dried and crunchy and have the faint sweet taste of jackfruit. I think I'd rather eat the canned, soft and sweeter kind.

I snapped this shot of Yum Cha Cafe before we left. One of these days, we'll have to brave the crowds here for dim sum.

More forthcoming posts on other ethnic food item...