Apple Bananas

It's a banana, but it taste (a little) like an apple. It's an apple banana:

Not much to say about these. They taste good, but one warning: they are not ripe when they are just yellow. At that stage, they taste ... well ... bad. More like peel or green banana than apple or banana. Wait until they are at least as ripe as this picture, preferably until they are uniformly browner.

Verdict: Glad I tried it, but I probably won't do it again.

Young Coconut

If you like coconut, you'll love young coconut.  A young coconut is that off-white thing that looks like a doll-sized tiki hut with no door or windows:

The green outer husk has already been hacked off by someone with a machete; your job is to take up where he left off and get at the treasure inside.

Make sure you select one that is fresh. If it's undated (they usually aren't dated), try to get one that's white. You'll also need a pretty sturdy knife.  First, hack a roughly circular pattern in the top of the tough, fibrous husk that remains, and peel (i.e., rip) that husk away:

Inside that husk is what would have eventually become the familiar hairy, brown coconut if we hadn't cut its young life short.

Next, hack a hole in the hard shell (the shell that you're used to seeing), and pry open the little lid that you just made:

Yes, it's exactly like brain surgery, and you've just cracked open the skull. [I'll let you draw any further anatomical analogies to skin, hair, dura mater, etc., that you care to.]

Clinging just inside the hard shell is a thin layer of coconut meat and (the best part) hopefully a shell full of liquid.  The liquid would have eventually solidified into coconut meat, but it is now very sweet essence of coconutty goodness:

(Typically, it's much thinner than this one and has the consistency of firm gelatin.)

Now all you need to do is pour the liquid into a glass (don't spill any of it), and as you scoop out the young coconut meat with a spoon, eat pieces with sips of the juice. Yum.

Verdict: I eat these all the time and plan on continuing to do so.

Mangosteens

Purple mangosteen

The purple mangosteen is a fruit from southest Asia.

It's very common to see them in Asian grocery stores. Here are the ups and downs of eating them.

In addition to trying something new — always an up — the one up for me is that when they are fresh, they have an interesting, pleasant flavor. Initially, they're well-balanced sweet and sour, with just a hint of salty. The aftertaste is reminiscent of vanilla.

But the most overwhelming component of the flavor is what I consider to be first of the downs: an unmistakenly strong smell of old, wet sawdust. When these things are fresher than the ones that I've gotten (I've bought two batches that came from different stores and wholesalers, and I noticed that the sawdust smell was stronger in the ones that were obviously less fresh), I'd expect that the sawdust flavor is muted or absent, especially given how people rave over them. But both my batches had that odor, and it put me off.

There are two other downsides. First, mangosteens are expensive in the states. I paid around a dollar something a piece for them.

And second, they're a little hard to open. The shell is about 3/8" thick and made of wet wood (undoubtedly the source of the sawdust flavor), and you must carefully open it with a good sized knife. I put the mangosteen on its side on a dish towel (one you don't like, because the purple stains), place a large knife against the side, pound it in about 1/4" with my hand, then do that around the outside a few times, and pry the thing open. Note the brown stain on the segments in this one that came from the outer shell:

Then just scoop the segments out. You can eat the smaller seeds, but don't try to eat the big one in the middle:

Verdict: Glad I tried it, but I probably won't do it again.

Caveat emptor.

[WORK IN PROGRESS]

Make sure that your store is busy and moving its merchandise.  Many ethnic grocery stores I’ve been in were uncrowded and not rotating their stock, selling expired canned goods and inedible produce that shouldn’t have been on the shelves. [If you happen to be in southeast Houston, the Hong Kong grocery on Scarsdale is as good as I’ve seen. Their produce is almost always great, and I haven't picked up any expired cans. Of course, YMMV.]


Also be aware that food made abroad is notoriously badly labeled. I ate some sesame candy once that had just a few ingredients listed, but I could clearly see at least as many additional undeclared ingredients.  If you have food allergies or are sensitive to certain things, understand that you’re rolling the dice. Like any grocery store, read labels and carefully look at, smell, and (if you can) touch all produce, meat, and fish before buying.

Before we get started ...

[WORK IN PROGRESS]

... you'll need a couple of things no matter what you'll be cooking. I'll be expanding on practically everything here eventually, but for now, let's break it down into things you can eat, and things you can't eat.

Things you can eat.

Regardless of what you want to cook, if it's Asian, you'll need to keep the following items on hand (in addition to things that you're already likely to have, like salt, black pepper, sugar, flour, and so on). Some you'll be going through more quickly, while some ought to last you a while:

• as many whole spices as you can get your hands on.  At the minimum, get: Chinese (or Vietnamese) five-spice powder, fresh white and black peppercorns in grinders, cardamom, cayenne, good cinnamon, cumin seeds, fennel seed, galangal powder, garlic powder, sesame seeds (light and dark), star anise, and turmeric.  If you can't get whole spices, get pre-ground, but you'll get less flavor.
• fish sauce
• rice wine
• rice. Depending on your tastes, you'll want at least a good Basmati rice and a regular long-grained white rice. And if you want sushi, get a good sushi rice.
• nari (if you want sushi).  Nari is the thin, dark green sheets of seaweed that you wrap sushi in. It comes in packs of 10 or more sheets, and it lasts a long time.
• corn starch. Corn starch added to cold water will thicken runny hot sauces in a jiffy.

There are also some ingredients that are so common that you might as well replenish your stock every time you're at the store. Then you can whip up something in a pinch:

• curry pastes.  Maesri makes little tuna-tin-sized curry pastes that are hard to improve on, especially in a pinch.  They make a couple dozen different kinds, so pick at least a half-dozen that you like.  Green, red, yellow, panang, and massaman are always popular. And they also make a pad thai noodle sauce and a couple of other things, if you're lucky enough to have a store with a good fresh selection.  [I think "mae sri" means something like "radiant mother."  If you're Thai (ok, if you're Thai, you wouldn't be reading this...), correct me.]
• coconut milk.  Be sure that you're getting the 12-oz or so cans of coconut MILK, not the little cans of cream of coconut from the mixed drinks section, or your stir fry will taste like a pina colada.
• stir-fry veggies and meat or tofu.  It's hard to go wrong keeping on hand a good supply of broccoli, bell peppers, hot peppers, celery, carrots, bok choy, onions, red and plain potatoes, chicken breast, and ground and whole pork and beef, or fried tofu, as your tastes demand. You can whip up a stir-fry, curry, or soup in a heartbeat with these, and they're good for you.
• fresh aromatics.  Get at least: cilantro (the green part of the coriander plant, also called Chinese parsley), basil (Thai basil or something like it if you can find it; it's much sweeter, and has a note that's more like a hybrid of Italian basil, mint, and fennel), garlic, .

Things you can't eat.

Here, too, although certain specialty foods will require specialty dishes, tools, appliances, utensils, and so on, there are some things you can't do without but that you might not have on hand already:

• sharp knives, including (at least), a paring knife and a butcher knife
• several cutting boards.  Be safe washing and caring for your cutting boards.
• lots of little bowls.  The French practice of mise en place, or "everything in its tiny little leftover dish" (ok, that might not be a literal translation) is especially important when you're cooking in a hot wok: there's simply no time to chop stuff up when the wok's sizzling away.  So you'll usually want to prepare the ingredients just (or well, if they'll keep) ahead of cooking, and you can use the bowls (or little plastic leftover containers) for this.
• a wok and a spider or wok spatula.  Search around the net to help you select the right one for your kitchen and also to learn the right way to care for it.
• a blender and/or a food processor
• a decent sized mortar and pestle, or if you insist, a good spice grinder
• an automatic electric rice cooker, sized for your needs
• metal or bamboo steamers. _.
• a bamboo sushi mat (if you want to prepare sushi, that is)
• a half-dozen or so squeeze bottles for oils and some sauces
• tongs.  If you don't already have a couple of sets, you'll be glad you spend the $10 on them.

But what if I don't have a cool Asian grocery store?

All is not lost.  Most canned, dried, and otherwise non-perishable ingredients can be obtained online.  One site that comes to mind is importfood.com.  They also carry fresh produce, and for some important items, the extra cost and inconvenience of shipping fresh fruit and veggies might be worth the trouble. Otherwise (and for meat and fish), I intend on noting what I think might make good substitutes.