Neighborhood Christmas party

As if our day wasn't long enough, we also had a neighborhood Christmas party to attend. The couple lives up the street and their granddaughter is TC's classmate at school. We didn't attend their shindig last year so we decided to go this year. This couple really knows how to throw a themed party. The wife went all out with her decorations. They were everywhere! She was also quite creative. She used calamansis from her neighbor's yard to make these snowmen! What a great idea!

Everyone had to bring a hot or cold dish. It was like the United Nations potluck. There was Chicken Kelaguen representing Guam (but most likely ordered from Yokozuna's!):

Mexican Beef Tamales :

One of her Filipino neighbors brought Crispy Salt & Pepper Chicken Wings (she ordered it from the Mandarin place on Telegraph Canyon Rd). These went quickly!

Another Japanese neighbor and her mother brought their nation's version of Beef Stew. We really liked this. The meat was so thinly sliced and the sauce was flavorful. I wished they had white rice to go with this though.

There was a fountain spouting a mixture of 7-up and grenadine syrup:

There was also some sort of curry croquette. We weren't sure who brought this or what country it might have been from, but...

I didn' really like how they tasted. There was a tiny hint of curry but they were so fried up that it was hard to tell what you were eating.

I think people forgot about this ham - it was on the stove next to the Japanese beef stew. Most of the food was on the kitchen island while these were on the stovetop.

I wish I knew the name of this dish, but her neighbor is Indonesian while the husband is Chinese. She said it was Chicken with Rice Wine and that it is good to eat while you are nursing a baby or are pregnant. I'm neither and I thought it was quite delicious - so much so that we ended up taking leftovers home!

My cheap ass offering, Chicken Salad. Actually, one guy liked it so much, he got thirds. This is canned chicken with canned water chestnuts (chopped) with canned pineapple chunks and canned mandarin oranges. Yes, four items are from cans! The rest of the ingredients are from your pantry - mayonnaise, soy sauce,curry power, black pepper. The fresh items are chopped celery and chopped green onions. You can substitute one of the fruits with sliced red grapes or sliced green apple. It's a sweet chicken salad. The crunch comes from the celery and the water chestnuts but you could also add chopped almonds to this. Anyways...that's what I made and brought.
Santa's here:

Someone brought edamame and fried lotus root much to my delight:

The lotus root cross section:The chocolate fountain - the chocolate was starting to get all blobby. They had all kinds of dippers like pretzels, chips, marshmallows and sliced fruits.

One last look at the calamansi snowman display.

Marukai & Mitsuwa

And if going to a Vietnamese and Indian Market were enough for one day, we just had to go to Marukai and Mitsuwa as well. Bert hadn't been to Marukai before so I really wanted him to see it, but also because I wanted another excuse to get more snacks and cute items to give as possible gifts. Look at these! Apparently, they are used for bentos. Seems like there's a really big emphasis on the lunches/snacks Japanese moms make for their kids. There was a whole section on items for lunches, like these little picks with zoo animals...
and mini sauce or dressing bottles. They even had these really tiny fish shaped containers that you could put soy sauce or some other sauce in. They are meant to be disposable I believe.

Oooh, and this! Mini spoons! Perfect for the gelato I just bought at Fresh and Easy!

And skinny bendy straws!

Check out this ominous warning though:There were a few other bento items like special cellophane made for wrapping triangular shaped onigiri. It also included tiny sticker/seals so you could have a nicely wrapped onigiri that didn't fall out of the wrapper! There were also tiny containers to hold bits of food, plastic rice in the shapes of hearts, animals, stars, and such. Bert,after much perusing, bought a set of mini Philipps screwdrivers (or were they flathead?). After Marukai, it was just a one minute drive to Mitsuwa in search of Hello Kitty items for TC's secret Santa for PASACAT.

Oh. My. Gosh.

So. Cute! These were cardboard stockings filled with candy and a toy (singular, not plural). They also had Hello Kitty but they were too expensive! For those San-X fans out there, this is Rilakkuma ("Relax Bear")! San-X has cuter and quirkier characters than Sanrio. I like the Wan Room series (household objects) and Kogepan (a burnt bread man). More on San X here . I only have a few San-X items that I bought at the Giant Robot store in LA and also at Comic Con.

Yes, the most logical name for Creamy Powder:

The drinks aisle:

TC thought the black cartoon character was funny because the lips were so pronounced! I didn't buy any Hello Kitty items in the store in the back of Mitsuwa but instead bought a 10-pack of bubble gum with Hello Kitty designs. I think I'll find more Hello Kitt selections at the local Sanrio store at the mall.I really like Asian Pears. They are so sweet, crisp and refreshing, especially after a meal.

Not a big fan of persimmons though, although TC really likes them.

There were a lot of pre packaged food gift sets on display as you walk into Mitsuwa. Forgive me for not knowing the major Japanese holiday coming up, but I assume it's for that. If you do know, please let me know so I can grow a new wrinkle or two on my cortex. I was enamored of these. They look like sweets but are so pretty I wouldn't even want to eat them.

Bert's choice of sweets to go with his morning coffee:

A 4-pack of chocolate covered fruit gummies:

plus the long Hello Kitty bubble gum 10-pack.

What a day! We go out for lunch but end up going to three different ethnic markets in search of specialized items. It's always fun checking out other stores and their merchandise. Makes Ralphs and Vons look pretty boring.

Ker

[Update - Closed]

After Vinh Hung, we went to the Little India Mall on Camino Ruiz. I noticed that the Indian Buffett (I think it was called India/Asia buffet or something) has now been changed to India Princess. It was located across from our destinatio, Ker Market in search of the elusive fenugreek spice.
We hadn't been in awhile so I was curious to see what was new and what delicacies (or junk/snack food) we would end up bringing home.These were in the snack aisle...Some of these are pretty damn hot! These spices will burn your throat and make it painful to speak.

The sweets aisle:

Pickled peppers and mangos:

More pickles:

Mango syrup in a freaky bear bottle:

A ha! Here they are! A bottle of the fenugreek only set me back $1.99 - I plan to give it to my co-worker as a little surprise. I hope she uses it. That was the small bottle too. There was a big-ass industrial size one for $8.99. The only reason I know about fenugreek is from our old spice rack from our wedding. The spice rack in which I only used a few spices then it gathered dust until I threw it away more than 5 years later. I digress...The real reason I remember fenugreek is that Superman ate some on a dare. We were still living in our apartment in Mission Valley and the guys were hanging out and Superman was looking at the spice rack and wondering what the hell fenugree was and what it tasted like. The expression on his face was priceless. He ended up spitting it out. I've never used the spice myself.

These statues were atop a small vegetable display watching over the customers who rummaged through the ginger roots, onions, garlic and potato bins

There was another section in this market (it's huge by the way since it's also a warehouse) of ready made foods. So many choices!

I bought this last time. Soan Papdi is a sweet made of flour, clarified butter, pistachios and spices and is made during Diwali (Festival of Lights).

I think this is the same potato chip that I bought last time. These really aren't potato chips that are sliced potatos, but rather, potato flour formed into chips and coated with a most incendiary blend of spices. These will also burn your throat, but they taste so good!~

Bert chose this "All in One' snack mix with nuts, chips and fruits. I chose the peanut balls with caramelized sugar.

This spice mix cost about $3 or $4 (I'd need to look at the receipt again) and this one's for me to figure out how to use.Here's the fenugreek for my co-worker:

Another one of Bert's snack choices - spicy nutz!

Close up of the peanut balls. These look like they would make my teeth hurt.

It was fun so far seeing two different markets. We were off to one more!