best grocery store in the world!

We recently went on an Easter trip and spent a few days in Berkeley.  m2 spent a few years there some time ago and took the opportunity to show s2 the best grocery store in the world---the Berkeley Bowl.  This is an independent supermarket just south of the downtown area with like the most amazing selection of produce.  Like really the most amazing selection of produce in the world.  Did I say it's got the most amazing selection of produce?  In the world? :) (at least among what we have seen)

There were like 20-30 varieties each of apples, citrus fruits, mushrooms, chillies...  There was a whole aisle of dried goods, at least ten varieties of rice, a whole bunch of pastas, nuts, dried fruits, grains, cereals... Many produce were labelled with their origins, with many grown locally in California.  They specialise in bulk food sale and also have an amazing cooked food section.  Interestingly there was no candy aisle, unlike every other supermarket on Earth.

Here's a few photos for proof.  

Citrus fruits...Oranges, Satsumas, Tangerines, Mandarins etc!

Apples as far as your eye can see !

Apples apples and more apples

Mushrooms

There were like 5 shelves of miso!

Herbs and spices

our modest selection of local produce ...
golden delicious, d'anjou pear (red), satsumas and avocados,
 flat round disc is a salt and pepper chocolate. 

Red earth flood plains

In a bid to finish remaining stock of fresh produce in fridge before a trip, we hatched a recipe for carrot , beetroot and dill soup with crème fraîche.

In an accidental botched seasoning , apple cider vinegar also featured in the soup! It was an appetizing and heartening meal !

Fish head soup (and noodles)

This is one of my comfort food in Singapore ! It is usually served as fish slices , fried or simply boiled in a milky or clear soup. This is our home made version from a 30p salmon head which was sufficient for 5 meals ! Simple and economical ;)

*added ingredients- sliced yam, tofu, leek, greens and lots of ginger !

French country loaf

We have been learning to make bread on our own and slowly improving over the years. Recently we invested in a number of bread paraphernalia, including loaf tin, bread basket, an oven stone, and weighing machine, and started reading the excellent Bread Matters by Andrew Whitley. They have really improved the bread we have been making.

Veggie meats

The idea of vegetarian meat or mock meat is an estrangement if we think about why we choose not to eat it. Ethical, environmental, health, religious etc. Or perhaps leaving moralities aside it can simply be seen as an ingredient- a veggie alternative? Spotted this at a local Vietnamese supermarket, the widest variety of veggie meat I've seen. Their base ingredient is all gluten with different seasoning simulating the different animals - as gathered from their labels .

Humus rouge

Kidney beans, tahini, olive oil and lime juice with a clove of garlic. Dash of Salt, pepper, cumin powder and paprika to season. Fridge and yummy pink humus sandwich for lunch ;)

We Found out just how important the citrus juice is to carry the earthy flavours and make it sing ! Squirrel preferences also dictated chopped walnuts mixed into humus for a bit more bite. Parsley brightens up the taste too ;) A first humus experiment without chickpeas.

Stir Fried Radish Cake

We were recently feeling a bit homesick and decided to make a little stir fried radish cake (菜头糕)
from back home.  This is a popular street food in Singapore and Malaysia, and we used a recipe from Little Teochew guest blogging for Rasa Malaysia.  Aka Chai Tow Kueh, it is like a fried noodle, except that instead of noodles made of wheat flour, we use little chunks of cakes made of steamed Chinese radish and rice flour.   If the chunks were made of wheat they would have been kinda tough and chewy, but with the radish and rice flour they were nice and soft (but not gooey), and the radish gives a nice subtle fresh taste to the chunks too.  Further they were first fried til crispy on the outside, so the contrast in textures is great.

This is a pretty simple dish with about 6 ingredients, but the preparation time was quite time consuming as the radish cake has to be steamed (best overnight).  Simplicity does come with considerable efforts!

For our first attempt, we tried two versions, a white one (fish sauce) and a black one (dark soy sauce).  It turned out a bit dry, so for our second attempt we used mushroom stock and added sliced mushroom and cabbage.  Pretty good, M2 dare say.  S2 however feels that its still a far cry from the breakfast ta-pau(take away) she gets back home, but ok for a home made first attempt.  

If you talk to any Malaysian or Singaporean living overseas, the topic of food will come up sooner or later, and almost always s/he will be missing the street or hawker food back home.  There really is a wide variety of great hawker food, though nowadays they can just as commonly be found in coffee shops, food courts, and shopping malls.

Though we wonder/worry sometimes about the future of street food.  Although many people love these food, almost nobody who have the means will want to be in this line of work: it is backbreaking work, having to work very long hours, and the pay is not great---people are still expecting that street food should be cheap, and won't pay restaurant prices for them, though the food might be tastier than at the restaurants!