[CH] To the Jungle and Back

Alex Silbajoris (asilbajo@hotmail.com)
Sun, 28 Oct 2001 12:29:09 

Caps,

Yesterday, I went on a long drive in my small car.  But I had had a nice 
day.  Linda's daughter was in a competition at the Fairfield high school, 
which is not far from Jungle Jim's, a huge international-foods store just 
north of Cincinnati, Ohio.

So I decided to go on a mission.  I've been waiting for any excuse to go 
back to that store, any journey that would bring me to the area again.  
After the competition concluded, and after a party lunch at Bob Evans 
(YKYACH in a non-chile restaurant when you just remove the shaker top from 
the black pepper shaker).  We spent almost two hours, a fairly quick tour, 
and of course I brought home plenty of chile products.

Let's see, Walker's Wood Spicy Jamaican solomon gundy smoked herring paste:  
at first it tastes a bit like ordinary canned mackerel, then mackerel packed 
in pepper sauce, they Hey!  Somebody play trick on me!  Looks like this will 
be another one of my Extremely Strange Snacks that no one else in the house 
will touch.

Lots of tempting stuff in the Jamaican section, but I passed by the cock 
flavor soup mix.

I got a Panola habanero mustard, very heavy with vinegar but with a hab heat 
that kicks in comfortably.  This is sort of a C-H version of what ball park 
mustard should be.

chile, described as "a sharp flavor to enjoy on nachos, pizzas, or 
enchiladas."  Haven't opened it yet.   Also got some other white cheeses 
from the same line.  And, I found a GOYA chipotle cheddar that I have yet to 
open.

I was briefly abducted by a Vietnamese woman.  I was in the Japanese 
section, looking at mirin sauces, when she asked if I was looking for fish 
sauces.  I already had a bottle of Tentay Fishball Sauce ("sour and spicy") 
from the Phillipines section, but she abruptly led me across aisles to the 
Three Crabs Brand fish sauce.  For several minutes I vanished while I soaked 
up a fast lesson in the various kinds of fish sauces.  Linda is a patient 
and understanding woman.

small bags, at nice prices - about 1/2 or 1/3 of what I'm used to seeing.

In Aisle 10, (scatter my ashes here) I restrained myself from grabbing many 
tempting sauces.  I saw many parts of the CaBoom line in a few places, and 
saw a lot of the seldom-seen labels.  In a separate cabinet, high on the top 
shelf,  were the "for adult eyes"  sauces.  Some of them make me wonder if 
they were intended for S&M gift baskets.

As for fresh chiles, nothing in a store compares to the fields.

The teenage cheerleader girls with us freaked at the sight of whole pig 
heads for sale.  They loaded up on cookies and headed out to play.

I could really go wild shopping in a store like that.

- A


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