Cultural Experience at Seafood City

Today, I decided to open up my test kitchen to making some potstickers
or Asian dumplings. I will be making an Asian fusion meal on Saturday
for the family (mom, sister and grandparents are coming over for a
Mothers' Day family feast. Potstickers is just one of the items on the
menu.

We decided to go to Mira Mesa, to one of the many Asian markets,
Seafood City. Mira Mesa is a predominantly Filipino community. Similar to Chinatown
that most major metro areas have.  Ethan has not been to an Asian
market since he was a baby, so it was quite an experience for him. As
always, I go straight to the lumpia counter to purchase a couple for
Ethan and I to snack on. This time we tried a sugar glazed banana
lumpia (similar to an egg roll, but with a sweet fruit fill). It was
delicious. I tried to get Ethan to taste, but he refused.  

Next we hit up the fruit and veg department. I needed just a few
items. I didn't want to stock up, since they did not offer organic. I
did manage to get organic tofu and locally grown strawberries.

After that, we went to the seafood section. They had live fish and
crabs, whole fish on ice out of the case packed with ice, whole shrimp
with the heads still on. Ethan and I took a look at the live fish in a
barrel that just had a small amount of water. Ethan and I got really
close to the barrel and when one of the fish flopped up, we must have
jumped two feet back. It was hilarious! Pictured is Ethan next to the
blue crab. He didn't want to get to close after what happened with the
fish.

Potstickers came out delicious. I even managed to get the pleat down
(one of the many ways to fold an Asian dumplings). Javi called them
hot stickers, it was cute. He loved them. Ethan got as far ad smelling
them and having a healthy curiousity about them, but didn't want to
eat them. Maybe next time!

Tonight we are going to open house at Ethan's school, so Mark will
have to wait to have some tasty potstickers.

I will post the link to the recipe later. I used Sohui Kim's recipe,
chef and owner of The Good Fork (Asian Fusion) recently featured on
Throwdown with Bobby Flay. They do have a wonderful moist flavor with
the tofu. Yummy!