May
6
2009
Grocery Shopping at the Only Oriental Store in Regina
Author: adminjol501Every now and then we go shopping at Ngoy Hoa Oriental Store. It is the only one here in our city and is a small one. There have many Filipino products there so it is always a joy to be there.
We went there the other day and I was hoping I could find some fresh young coconut (we call it buko or butong in the Philippines) and some Thai sweet basil. There was no fresh coconut but there was basil. We love eating at Thai restaurants and we especially like their noodle soups. It is always served with fresh sweet basil and the aroma is so soothing. That’s how I learned to love this herb.
Thai Basil – I buy this at the Oriental Store
young coconut – I miss this so much
The last time I prepared my first seaweed salad, I promised myself that seaweed will be a staple in my pantry from then on. I bought several packs of wakame and kelp in different brands. Some are dried and the others are instant salads. I also bought toasted nori and sesame seeds and some Japanese rice seasonings.
We bought these dried seaweed at Ngoy Hoa
What I like about Ngoy Hoa is that they have our Filipino meat preserves and they are very good. My husband’s favourites are tocino and chorizo for his breakfast meals. My favourite is the fish tapa. We also buy our lumpia, siomai and dumpling wrappers there.
What I don’t like in going there is that sometimes you get tempted to buy unfamiliar products that you wanted to try but find out later that you can’t stand it. Like last time we bought a dumpling sauce but when we opened the bottle, the smell and the taste was so disgusting to us. We had to throw the product in the garbage right there and then.
We experience this once in awhile but then it’s still good to have an Oriental store here. I just hope someone else will open another store or who knows, I could be that someone?
