If you hurry, you might still find some Patrick available:
Now I cant wait to go back! Thanks for the ideas. I did not see a hot food section.
Also, the “Grumpy Lady sauce” is great stuff - so nicknamed for the picture on the jar. It’s fried chili flakes in oil. Great condiment to put on many Asian dishes, like gyoza (potstickers).
Get yourself an Asian cookbook and start exploring recipes. You can nip and sample at all sorts of stuff, but making dishes that incorporates those ingredients is the best way to get a feel for their uses.
Since the market is such a drive, either bring the book with you or pick a few potential recipes in case you can’t find a particular ingredient for a particular dish.
Also, get the old lady sauce that scr4 mentioned. That stuff is amazing. Be careful with storage, though - the oil gets everywhere.
The stuff is delicious. To be a bit more specific, it also has sichuan peppercorns (listed as “prickly ash” on the ingredients), onions, salt and MSG. It really is a good stuff. I had no idea it apparently has a cult following, but the stuff is addictive. I can eat it straight out of the jar. But I’m glad I saw your post and it reminds me, I gotta make an Asian store run, since my supplies have been out for awhile!
Tiparos is my everyday fish sauce (and I’m lucky, as it’s sold at the local grocery store here, too, for some reason. I have no idea why, but they have like eight different brands of fish sauce there; Thai, Vietnamese, Filipino. It’s mostly a Mexican-targeted market, but they must have gotten an oversupply of fish sauce or something.) Anyhow, if you’re into fish sauce, look out for Red Boat. It’s a bit pricier than Tiparos, but worth looking out for if you haven’t had it before. I’ve seen it at Asian markets, but also at places like Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods or something of that more upscale nature. That’s my special fish sauce I use for dipping and stuff like that.
Try the durian ice cream too. It’s my personal favorite. I don’t know if they’d have Vietnamese chè. I like chè chuối (with banana) and chè bắp (or ngô) (corn).
In regards to buying goat meat vis-a-vis the pet goats, you can always point out to “the girl” that it could be worse! I mean, some day the store may be out of goat.
Anything soy-related (different forms of tofu, edamame, fermented soybeans, soy milk) is also going to be better and cheaper than you can get elsewhere.
Also, while you can certainly get dried noodles, the refrigerator cases will also have FRESH noodles.