Grocery Shopping at an Amusment Park

Yesterday we plotted our course and did some adventuring around town. First stop was Lulu's Noodles, where the pho is supposed to be legendary. Uh, we didn't order it, though. Next time we will for sure. It just seemed too warm out for a big bowl o' soup. The Cantonese pan-fried noodles were good, though.

After that was a stop at a couple shops in the area - I'm afraid I did the typical wife thing and wandered to a nearby Cost Plus World Market while the Boy mulled over arcane external drive housings and computer guts at another store. We need curtains downstairs, so I searched for some. I've come to the conclusion that whoever decided that curtains should be sold one panel at a time ought to be smacked. I can imagine someone rubbing their hands with evil glee as they propose that not only will one one panel be sold at a time (as if anyone ever just needs a single panel for a whole window), but the panel shall be thin! So thin, in fact, that one may need to buy MORE than two panels to cover an entire window. MWAHAHA!!!

Only IKEA seems to get it right. They not only sell curtains enough for an ENTIRE window in one package, but it still costs less than a single measly panel elsewhere. Oh IKEA, come quickly. Cincinnati is waiting, and Spring 2008 seems so far away.

Anyhoo, after gnashing my teeth about the curtain panels, we traversed north a ways to a food market called Jungle Jim's. Now actually, to call it a food market would be a disservice.

You can't see the elephant fountain from here. Seriously.

What the place actually is, is something....sort of hard to describe. Imagine, if you will, that an amusement park married the most massive international grocery ever. This place would be the kid they'd have. According to the eccentric "Jungle Jim" himself, the place is, "Oh, six or eight acres" of gastronomical wonders ranging from thousands of cheeses, to an entire normal grocery store size area of wines and alcohols, to a fresh fish market, to a massive hot sauce section alphabetized by name, to... pretty much, you name it. Good thing we'd already grocery shopped recently. We hadn't really known what to expect there. Among the foods, you have weird and corny displays of various kinds, like a singing lion dressed like Elvis, or a support pole transformed into a giraffe neck. It was kind of bizarre in that respect, but you really really couldn't argue with the fact that any food or ingredient you could ever imagine, they had.

This is just part of the Parmasan and Romano section of the Cheese District. Forgive the blurriness. We were being sneaky with the camera.

Here are some of the dried peppers, most of which I'd never heard of. The whole area had an amazing smokey, peppery smell.

This is the front of the Hot Sauce Department- there are some aisles behind. I think the Boy had a little heart attack when he saw this. There was much gleeful browsing.

Who'd have thunk? A hot sauce that costs $2,000?? If cost is proportionate to heat, it must be like putting battery acid on your food.

We got off easy, buying just a few things: a six pack of various interesting beers and ales, which I'll write about later, cardamom, big shavings of cinnamon, star anise, and galanga. Oh, and a cat toy. Heh.

If any of you visit us here in Cin City, you may want to pay Jungle Jim's a visit. Bring your walking shoes.