H-Mart in California (and Why Thirsty)
I decided to go out on a Wednesday night, crazy, I know. Anyways the entire point was to try this place that homemakes their boba just as I’m working with CDS to do. This place is called “Why Thirsty”, it’s Taiwanese and off Rosemead. Basically the first good sign is that there were a bunch of Chinese characters I couldn’t recognize on the door; that’s always a great indicator for good boba.
I got the jasmine milk tea because I’m honestly a sucker for jasmine tea. Boba was pretty amazing not going to lie. Maybe a little too chewy for me, but the flavor was on par with, if not better than Labobatory (which I’ll post about eventually). Also, their food smelled AMAZING (and I somehow forgot to take to take a picture of the tea.)
But the real point of this blog post is to talk about H-Mart and the amazing Asian influences that I’ve found pretty unique to California. I went to H-mart after Why Thirsty. Super big Asian plot twist, I know. But anyways I walked in and I was astounded by honestly just how nice it was.
Like look at that, honestly.
H-Mart is my go to Asian grocer in Colorado, but H-Mart in Denver is kinda shady. It’s loud both noise-wise and in terms of the smells of fish wafting over to you. But this H-mart off Rosemead was like Whole Foods, but Asian. It was well lit (lighting is honestly super important for grocery stores), had new and interesting products, fresh fruits of a manner I’d never seen. And I even saw my mortal enemy, the fresh durian. For the record, if anyone ever tells you durian is an amazing fruit they’re lying. It tastes like earwax, bananas, raw onions, and despair. It’s spiky because it’s not meant to be eaten. Also fun fact, falling durian kills like 4 people every year, look it up.
This trip of revelation concluded with the spotting of an old friend: Nishiki brand medium grain rice. In Colorado it’s super hard to find, I’ve been to 4 grocery stores in one day trying to find this rice. But it was just there in stacks. Gorgeous.
Actually my adventure ended with an Uber pool where our driver had recently been divorced and the guy in the front seat just broke up with someone and was thinking of moving back in with his parents. It’s important to take time to appreciate the little things at Tech and in life, like conversations with random strangers. That’s pretty much all I’ve got for today. Thanks for reading!
-Chandrew
