New Thing 39, New Thing Every Day -- Visit an Asian Grocery

For today's New Thing, I visited Lee's Market at 700 Cherry Street, Columbia.

Here are 10+ things about my first visit to an Asian grocery.

1. Lee's Market really is kind of a hole in the wall location, but that is part of their charm. Lee's isn't fancy; they just get the job done.
2. Inside, it looked pretty much the way I thought it would -- dark, cramped, with food crammed everywhere.
3. There were several families shopping there, all Asian, speaking in languages other than English.
4. There were so many foods I had never seen before, almost entirely imported from other countries, and from all over Asia.
5. Definitely, I should have gotten the sliced octopus tentacle. Big mistake.
6. My first choice was the gochujang, a "a savory, spicy, and pungent fermented Korean condiment made from red chili, glutinous rice, fermented soybeans, and salt." I have started seeing it on a lot of cooking shows and am excited to try it.
7. From the refrigerated section, I got a little bottle of sake, because it was really cute and, well, sake.
8. Leigh will like the bag of frozen potstickers I found; we get them in restaurants all the time.
9. My friend Brian Clark, gone way too young, introduced me to roasted seaweed when we were living together at the Dumas building, across the street from the MU campus. No clue what I will do with it, but it makes me think of Brian and that makes me happy.   
10. The checkout kid was so incredibly nice.