Hey all!
When I last posted, I did a post about the AOP at Michigan State that I attended on the 16th and 17th. Well, instead of heading straight home (because where's the fun in that?), I went exploring and drove around a little.
The first thing that I should mention, if you didn't guess from my first post, is that I am a second-generation American-born Chinese. I grew up in a Chinese restaurant that my parents own, eating homemade Cantonese-style food and going out to yum cha at least once a month. Now that I'll be going out on my own, I want to try a lot of different cuisines, but mostly I will be sticking to a lot of Asian restaurants and stores at first, before I go out and try different pizza places and stuff.
So, the first place that I went after leaving AOP (and getting lost in the parking lot for half an hour...) was to Oriental Mart, which was closed when I went to East Lansing over July 4th (unexpectedly. Yes, I am still holding a grudge). It is pretty big, they have probably three or four freezers holding things like frozen dim sum, ice cream, and ingredients like sliced rice cakes, fish balls, things like that.
There was a shelf dedicated to jars of sauces, which isn't uncommon. Things like soy sauce, sriracha, bean curd sauce, etc., which are, in my family, at least, not used to slather or marinade foods, but added to foods to increase the taste and as an ingredient to the sauce. Shelves of snacks but, unfortunately, none that I really eat or have grown up with. It was mostly different sponge cake-type snacks and cookies. There was also one wall of "fresh" vegetables, such as gai choy, bok choy, cilantro, and my personal favorite, ong choy (and other vegetables but, because I don't really eat a lot of the kinds that they had, they pretty much glazed by for me). I only picked up some ong choy and a vegetable called callaloo, which I'd never heard of before. Wow. That was a horrible choice. There were a lot of rave reviews for Oriental Mart online, so I thought it would be good, but oh my goodness. The vegetables were of awful quality. The inside (it was pre-packaged in a bunch, and covered with some colored plastic that made it hard to see) was brown, wilted, and just not fresh for both vegetables. It was extremely disappointing, and disgusting to eat, too.
Honestly, the only good point that Oriental Mart earned with me was that they sell some hot food, which was great because I had had my breakfast at 7AM and it was running on 2PM. They had samosa, and vegetable egg rolls, two for $1. Those were pretty good, and definitely hit the spot on my hunger since I didn't plan on eating until I made my way home.
Overall, not a lot of choices that my family uses. And the prices were at least fifty cents to a dollar higher than I'm used to. One thing that was a bummer was that they do not sell fresh seafood (such as tanks of lobster or crabs or fish). They did have a lot of rice, the huge, 50 pound bags, so if I ever need rice, I'll go there? Otherwsie, I don't think that I'll go there to shop when I'm at state. And if you are just looking to buy some asian ingredients (because I did see some Indian and Filipino sauce ingredients) but are not from East Lansing, I would recommend choosing Hua Xing Market in Ann Arbor. It's a lot bigger, has much more variety, fresher vegetables, and is cheaper.
Next, I stopped by Grand River Avenue to pick up some bubble tea, which my brother loves, and figured that I might get some sushi. There was no parking! It was really crazy, something I totally didn't expect. Where I live, in the "downtown," there is tons of street parking. So I drove around for about fifteen minutes before finding a parking lot behind the block of buildings that has Charlie Kang's and American Apparel. This was also my first experience with a paid lot! I spent a few minutes at the enter booth because I, stupidly, thought that you had to pay before you parked. It was rather embarrassing. Don't be like me. Just push the button, take your ticket, and park.
It was about two blocks to the Bubble Island, so I walked down that way. I ordered all of my drinks to go, but the place looked nice, very casual and fun. I usually just order strawberry milk tea with black bubbles, and sometimes add mango stars. At the Bubble Island in Ann Arbor, they have a punch card thing where you buy so many bubble teas and get one free. I don't know if the East Lansing one offers that type of program, but if they do, I didn't get a punch card. The bubble tea was good, tasted just like the one in Ann Arbor. If you aren't familiar with bubble tea, it is a black tea, mixed with milk or cream, and then with syrup added to it. There is also a choice for the "bubbles" which are big pearls of black tapioca, or colored bubbles (colored tapioca), or mango stars.
Because it was nearby, I went to Sushi Ya next for some sushi to take home with me. My order was embarrassingly simple because it was my first time ordering it. I ordered an avocado roll, a salmon roll, a California roll, and a crab roll. Next time, I'll probably be a little bit more adventurous. What I did get was pretty good! They packaged it all in one box (because I didn't mind), with a little squirt of wasabi (personally, I wish they had given more), pickled ginger, and a small salad on the side. The salad just had some iceberg lettuce and some grated carrots and no dressing, so I just gave it to my brother. The sushi was pretty good, though! The ingredients were very fresh, and the flavoring was just right. I definitely plan on making my way up there in the fall.
I was disappointed that I didn't get to pick anything up at Oriental Mart that was really of value, so I went to Great China Market as my last stop, since it was on my way home anyways. I love that place so much! It's a lot smaller, a bit cramped, almost, and also doesn't have fresh seafood. However, the prices and selection is much more on par with other Asian Markets that I've been to. I picked up some canned milk drink, which my brother LOVES because he drank it all the time in China, some Milkita milk candy (something else he loves, which Oriental Mart did not have), a small bottle of Aloe Drink for the car ride, and some snacks.
The only thing about Great China Market is that they don't accept credit cards (or checks, I think). I didn't know this last time because my mom paid for all the groceries, but I figured it out this time. I was out of cash and panicking a bit, but they conveniently have an ATM in the back of the store, that only charges $2.49 to withdraw money. It's not a problem at all because they do have the ATM in the store, but if you're on the money-saver side and don't particularly want to spend that $2.49, withdraw money at another ATM before you come.
A good thing about Great China Market is the service. Both times that I went in, there was one older man working the cash register. I figured out last time that he spoke only Mandarin (not Cantonese, like I do). I, uh, don't speak a lot of Mandarin other than xie xie (thank you), ni hao (hello), and wo henhao (I am good), but he (for obvious reasons such as, 1) the last time I came in, I was with my mom who is fluent in Mandarin and 2) I look Chinese) tried speaking to me in Mandarin (telling me my total, that they didn't accept credit cards). His son was in there and helped translate for me, so there wasn't a problem. It is times like that though, that make me a little bit self-conscious that I can't speak any conversational Mandarin. But the old man was so adorable that it made me laugh. After I'd asked where the bathroom was (I know, that is definitely something I should learn) in English, he had his son translate. His son was like "Oh, it's back there. I'm sorry, my dad doesn't speak English." Not a problem, sir! I don't speak a word of Chinese, either! Anyways. It takes a little while to get there without a car, walk to a CATA stop, and then keep walking, but it will be worth it. I plan on making it over there at least once a month, if I can!
So, that's it for now. Great China Market = 4 stars. Oriental Mart = 1 star. Sushi ya = 4 stars, as does Bubble Island.
I have some stuff planned for a few "dorm haul" posts, just to give other freshmen an idea as to what I am packing or buying. So, I'll do a couple of posts as I pick more things up. Until then!
-Rakuzen
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