1 Hour Vacation

Travel and food. These are two things my husband and I agree are good places to spend our money. Since travel is currently out of the picture for us we are using all that travel money on food. (That sounds like we have tons of travel money. That’s not the case but a girl can dream!)

Whenever we leave our home base, whether to the Poconos, Mexico or England, I always go grocery shopping. I feel like a good way to see culture is through food and a good way to see authentic culture is to shop where the locals shop. Through this I’ve discovered bottles of pickle juice (Poconos), prawn cocktail crisps (London), and chihuahua cheese and tajin (Puerto Vallarta!)

After two days at virtual school, aka not leaving home, we needed a change of pace. We have explored Trader Joes, Sprouts, Wegmans, and Aldi. Each one has its own products that we try, new and exciting things like pickle popcorn and chocolate with toffee bits. Each store has its flavor but when I learned a NEW GROCERY STORE opened I knew this was our destination. Not only is a new place to explore, it’s an Asian American grocery store. We have H-Mart here and I love that place but a new grocery store is a new place to explore.

We left arrived at Hung Vuong Food Market at 7pm, just one hour before it closed. Our “vacation” began at the door with an automatic temperature scan. We all passed temperature “security” and entered into our final destination, no airplane necessary!

First attraction was fruit and veg, however, I was distracted by one of the two sections of tea. This was where I picked up my first souvenir, Pu-erh tea. I am a huge fan of tea but I usually keep to my usual PG Tips. I’ve tried Pu-erh tea at one of my favorite restaurants, Hong Kong Fusion so I decided that this “vacation” was a perfect time to try it myself. Clearly I also needed a new mug with an infuser to try it it. It was, after all, a floral pattern and I love floral.

Next up was the fish and meat section. My stir crazy kids were trying to hold conversations with the fish and examining the cuts of meat we don’t often find at Wegmans. Then off to ice cream followed by all the fun bowls and mugs. (I want all of them!)

We wandered up and down the aisles until the store closed. We didn’t even cover half the store, vacations always end too soon. We were, however able to bring some treats home to enjoy until our next visit. (That next visit just might be today.)