Food, Yummy Yummy!!

As part of the 6th 2014 Blogger Challenge, we're writing about Food! Yay! I love cooking, trying new recipes, and finding new fun, food finds! 

This past Friday, I asked Bjorn if he wanted to make an impromptu trip to Jungle Jim's just for fun. If you don't live in Cincinnati, or have never been to Jungle Jim's, it's this awesome international grocery store, where you can find any kind of food under the sun! They have great fresh fish and seafood, awesome produce, and so many fun new things to try from around the world! You could literally spend hours in this place! Sometimes we just walk around and look at all the cool stuff!

Fresh clams from the seafood section

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Hot Sauce Isle

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International Produce Section

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We haven't been to Jungle Jim's since my birthday, and I really had a hankering for some roasted shrimp! We always get the best seafood at Jungle Jim's! Bjorn agreed that it would be fun, so we decided to venture out. I'm so glad we did! It made for a super fun night. I added it to my happy list for the week!

We ended up going to Jungle Jim's with a small list of things that I definitely wanted to get and a few things for dinner that night. And of course as always, we found some other yummies while we were there! There are always things that we can find there that we can't get other places: Asian candies, shrimp chips, German chocolate, curry pastes, and specialty sodas. It's a rare treat to get these things, so this was definitely a special treat for me and Bjorn. 

Here is a list of items that we picked up from Jungle Jim's. 

1. Easy Peel Tiger Shrimp (1-1/2 pounds)

Bjorn and I love to cook and eat shrimp, well, any kind of seafood really. We recently found this great recipe from Ina Garten through Bjorn's mom. It's roasted shrimp with homemade cocktail sauce, and it is divine! There is a link to the recipe below. We had some smaller shrimp, so we only cooked them for about 20 minutes. Sometimes, we've found, when you cook the shrimp too long, the shells are to hard to peel off the shrimp. It's like they get stuck.

Ina Garten's Roasted Shrimp Recipe

2. 4 artichokes

Bjorn and I also love to cook and eat artichokes! They are seriously one of my favs! I had never eaten artichokes like this until I had them at Bjorn's house when I was in high school. They are heaven! Sometimes we dip the meat of the leaves and the hearts in olive oil with salt and pepper. Sometimes we dip them in butter and salt and pepper. Friday we did both. Quite a few of my friends have asked me for my recipe because they don't know how to prep the artichokes. They seriously look super intimidating at first, but I promise you, they are not hard to prep! I think I'll make a post about it in the near future!

3. Green olives and kalamata olives

Bjorn and I love to eat olives, bread, cheese, salami, and cucumber soup for dinner on busy nights. We don't do this too much anymore because I'm supposed to stay away from olives, stinky cheese, and lunch meat for my headaches. However, this is seriously one of my all time favorite dinners! Open a bottle of wine and throw in a movie, and you have the perfect date night :)

4. Bocconcinni (little marinated mozzarella balls)



5. Shrimp Chips

One of my students brought me some of these a few years ago to try. They are so good! I bought some because I hadn't had them in forever! They're in one of the Asian snack aisles. They have a subtle shrimp taste.

6. Asian fruit chewy candy

My students always bring me these chewy fruit candies too called Hi-Chews. They come in flavors like mago, green apple, strawberry, cherry, and blueberry. They were on sale for 99 cents per pack, so we bought a few. They are very soft and chewy, not like Starburst, and they're not too sweet. Bjorn really like them!

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7. Massaman Curry paste

Bjorn and I have a great Thai place down the street from us (Mekong Thai). He loves their Massaman curry, but it's not always practical to eat out from there all the time. Takeout can be expensive! So, we decided to find some curry pastes to make this week;s dinners easy. We found one where you add some coconut milk and its done. I think we'll add chicken, pineapple, veggies, and rice, and we'll be good to go! We also got a curry paste with kefir lime. We'll see how that one tastes too!

8. Coconut and Mango Pepper Sauce

We saw this interesting sauce to use over meat or veggies for cooking and picked it up for another easy dinner. It's called Tropical Pepper Company Mango Coconut Grilling Sauce. We thought about using this one for some pork chops.

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9. Moxie Soda (for Bjorn...bleck!) Too sweet for me!

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We got a few other things too, but I'm going to save those for Tried It Tuesday! Can't wait to share how I liked them with you!

Even if you don't have a place like Jungle Jim's around, I find that there are always Asian, Hispanic, and Indian markets where I live and different cities where I travel too. Don't be intimidated by them! Go in and try something new and different! If you live in the Cincinnati area, Cam Asian Supermarket is fabulous too! Trying new things makes me so happy!

Have you tried any new foods lately?


Love and happiness <3 Holly