Monday, August 31, 2009

the chino

"the chino" is how people here refer to the chinese owned grocery stores.

tonight as i'm in the middle of cooking (**thai lettuce wraps) i realized i didn't have enough soy sauce. "ummm, should i go without it, no no no, run to the chino." i tell myself.

i didn't want to change from my comfy pj pants to acceptable outside pants, but i did. if it were cold outside i probably would have ditched the idea altogether. i didn't even wear a jacket outside; perfect.

luckily my chino is only one block away. i don't know why, but the two chinos that i go to always have salsa or meringue music playing. sort of funny because i rarely hear this music being played around the city. it's funny to me to hear latin music in the chino, but no complaints from me, it's just sort of odd.

so, when i walked in, i couldn't find soy sauce. "ha ha, you know...i wouldn't be surprised if a chinese store in b.a. doesn't have soy sauce...it really wouldn't surprise me" i thought. my spanish isn't good, i wish it were better, but i at least have 'grocery store spanish' so asking wasn't a problem at all. i was told where it was, next to the spices on a separate shelf. there was only one kind and one brand...at least there was one.

at the register i told the little chinese girl bagging (in spanish) that i didn't need a bag. she looked at me strange. i said i have so many at home...she still looked at me strange.

no one carries cloth grocery bags and everyone seems to get a bag for any tiny purchase.
on this same topic when i went to the grocery store yesterday, after having my wine scanned at the check out, i put a bottle of wine in my purse. the cashier looked shocked (he just scanned it so it was obvious to him that i was paying for it). he tried to tell me no because of the cameras, i tried to tell him but i'm paying for it and my purse is much stronger than the plastic bag. in the end he was fine with it but i know he thought i was nuts.
**in order to make the thai chicken wraps in b.a. you need to go to china town for the hoisen sauce.)

2 comments:

jenna said...

haha, i have the opposite problem. if i wander into a chino here, i think, "now, which one of these 82 brands of soy sauce is the right one for me?"

i still owe you recipes. i'm a terrible slacker; i'm sorry.

yillabean said...

sure sure, when you have time send them over for me to give them the b.a. test. they can't be anything too crazy, because i can just get the bare basics food wise.

thanks!!!