The big guy and I checked out the recently opened Lee Lee Oriental Supermarket at the corner of Orange Grove and La Cholla in Tucson yesterday morning and boy are we ever glad we did. If you're looking for anything ... and I mean anything required for cooking Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indonesian, Vietnamese, Thai or Indian food you'll no doubt find it at Lee Lee's. I was absolutely awestruck at the size of the location and quantity of stock but more importantly at the cleanliness. The meat counter, seafood area and fresh vegetables ...the selection is amazing and everything, absolutely everything seems to be incredibly fresh.
No more driving half way across town for us - in fact I'm planning a return trip PDQ. I mean why fly to distant lands when you can visit them without the airport hassles. It's even inspired us to go on another food adventure like our tour of some Caribbean islands last fall, so stay tuned!
Our reason for visiting Lee Lee's in the first place was to stock up on some essential Asian items required for last night's dinner. Being a frugal shopper "extra'ordinaire", prices for staples such as soy sauce, hoisin, and any kind of noodle you can imagine are a heck of a lot more reasonable at an Asian market than at your regular chain store, never mind the number of choices available.
Sprouts had their Steelhead on sale this week so we were hankering for another feed of Asian Glazed Steelhead. Now we've shared this with you before, in fact it made the "blue ribbon" choices for last year's posts so I won't bend your ear about it again. Suffice to say it's worth being on your regular menu rotation and honestly, the glaze isn't limited to steelhead. Try it on any fish, seafood or chicken and you'll love it.
We had our glazed fish along with a noodle dish comprised of fresh rice noodles covered in a sauce of minced ginger, jalapeno, cilantro, soy sauce and rice vinegar. Flavorful enough, I couldn't quite get by the image of eating "green worms", though it didn't seem to bother the big guy one bit. I'll try this again with another style of noodle, but flavor wise it matched the fish very well. Download Asian Noodles with Ginger-Cilantro Sauce
Of course we also picked up some spring rolls in the frozen section of Lee Lee's to round out our dinner and honestly they were delicious! Loaded with vegetables and chicken and crispy on the outside, which is not always the case with oven baked spring rolls, they were a lot quicker to put on the table than making them yourself though I have to say, not quite as much fun! We'll remedy that soon, I promise!
The moral of the story - if you haven't already done so, check your local yellow pages to find ethnic markets close to where you live. You won't be sorry and who knows what you'll be inspired to create. The big guy's holding out for pork bungs - don't ask, but you can be sure you'll not be seeing them on any of MY menus. LOL
What a beautiful looking platter!!!!! I love love love ethnic markets and since Hurricane Katrina - they are difficult to find in New Orleans... It is gardening weekend - too beautiful to stay indoors! Got a Meyer Lemon yesterday!!!!! It has fruit and flowers on it already!
Posted by: Nanan | 04/11/2010 at 08:23 AM
Lea - good for you re the Meyer lemon. Those little golden orbs are pure GOLD!Bet the air's smellin' pretty darn good in your neck of the woods too these days.
Posted by: June | 04/11/2010 at 10:15 AM
Oh my this looks so delightful, I love this type of food.
Posted by: noble pig | 04/11/2010 at 05:31 PM
I miss having the availability of ethnic markets that we used to have when we lived in the city. That dish looks absolutely fantastic...almost too pretty to eat!
Posted by: Mags | 04/11/2010 at 05:52 PM
Thanks Cathy - steelhead's got to be easy for you to find up/over there. BTW, hope the weather holds so you get your fence in!
Mags - trust you had a wonderful weekend. It's amazing the stuff they have at Lee Lee's. Come visit and we'll spend a day or two there!
Posted by: June | 04/11/2010 at 06:15 PM