Road Trip: Shopping and Snackin' in LA - Hong Kong Plaza Squared

We had an appointment in Los Angeles this afternoon, so of course there would be some eating involved. And knowing our luck it would also just so happen to be the hottest day of the year. Geez! We left at a quarter after nine, and made great time getting to our first destination at about ten till eleven, too early for lunch (restaurant not open till eleven). So we decided to take a walk around, even though it was stifling hot.

Our destination - Hong Kong Plaza in West Covina. This huge mall didn't even exist when we moved from LA 4 years ago. So it was quite a shock to see this huge mall here. This outpost of Hong Kong Supermarket was also a shock. We lived down the street from Hong Kong Market in Rowland Heights, and it was basically a Chinese Market. This branch was different and looked to be directed at the Southeast Asian population. It was fun walking down the isles and finding items like the frozen Mangosteen:

One isle was totally dedicated to various packaged seasonings and mixes, many of which I've never heard of:

                                                                     

  After picking up some nice looking lychee (99 cents/lb - a great price), rejecting the jujubes (dry and looking old), and picking up some packaged snacks I went to the check out, paid and headed for our lunch destination. All the time counting my blessings - I got out spending under twenty bucks.

Hong Kong Supermarket
987 S Glendora Ave
West Covina, CA 91790

After lunch and our appointment, we headed to the "other" Hong Kong Plaza, and our "stinky tofu" destination; Shau Mei Restaurant. While waiting for our tofu, the Missus ordered a Taiwanese Shaved Ice with 3 "items" ($2.50):

Basically 3 items - in this case Lychee, sweet rice balls, and Mango Mousse, covered with a pile of shaved ice with some syrup. You can also order this with condensed milk or juice for an additional cost. In about 5 minutes it looked like this:

The mango mousse was terrible BTW. Standing in the suffocating heat, with a large bag (3 orders) of stinky tofu in my hand was a bit much for me, so I returned to the car to store the tofu while the Missus browsed through a pile of CDs and DVDs. I returned and considered myself lucky; she only bought 3 Andy Lau CDs for $3. She had spotted this sign though:

99 cent Boba - Bargain City! How can you resist a 99 cent Boba? So after a sharp right turn we headed into the snack shop and got a Taro Shake with Boba (Boba in a shake 25 cents). I'm not a Boba drinker, but took a sip. It tasted like a Taro Shake. The Missus said it was a bit sweet, but the Boba was good. So this was obviously worth $1.24.

So done with our short reprieve from the heat, we headed out into the parking lot, and suddenly realized why we like San Diego so much. We miss all of the options available to you in Los Angeles, but really don't miss the 100 degree plus temps and the psycho drivers and traffic.

Here's the sign of the day:

You too can go where the "Implants Hang Out"!!!

What about our lunch? That's for tomorrow, when I've recovered from my heat stroke.

Comments

[Reid]

Hi Kirk,

Nice to see that you can get frozen mangosteens there. I can't even find them here to save my life. Maybe next year when mangosteen season rolls around again, I'll be able to find some fresh ones. I heard they are growing them on the Big Island.

Those packets of spice mixes are for Indonesian/Malay foods on the top to shelves and on the bottom shelf, it looks like Thai seasonings. Stay away from the Thai ones as most that I've come across aren't any good. The ones from Indo-Foods are quite good and I've tried many of them before. You'd probably want to get something like ayam goreng (fried chicken) and nasi uduk (coconut rice) or nasi kuning (yellow rice flavored with turmeric), although I think the nasi kuning goes better with sambal prawns.

[Kirk]

Hi Reid - Thanks, next time I'll pay a little more attention - I found this "wall of mixes" more intimidating than any "wall of snacks". So next time I'll pay more attention...there's a couple of restaurants in this mall - one Malaysian, the other Chinese that we want to check out.

[Jo]

Kirk, the Golden Phoenix spice aisle is turning into the same thing. More mixes than you can shake a stick at.

Reid, there are a lot of Viet spice mixes, can't think of the brand right now, but they are in cellophane packets. The same folks also sell a ton of powdered spices. Know anything about their mixes?

[Kirk]

Hi Jo - All I know is that those little packets scare me...buying those little packets make me feel like I'm doing something illegal.

[clare eats]

The Indo food ones are pretty good :)
Much easier version of Ayam Goreng than the one I sent you :P

You should keep an eye out for the instant peanut sauce too!

I am so suprised you didnt get any of the frozen Mangosteen!!!!

[Kirk]

Hi Clare - I would've except that it was 11am and about ten thousand degrees out and stil had about half a day to go before driving 120 miles back home. I think we'll get them next time. I'll try to find the Ayam Goreng next time.

[clare eats]

Yeah true... I saw 3 for $4.60!!! here today (crazy!) I am soing going to try and grow them.

You SO need one of those car fridges ;)

they are really cheap here now and make such a HUGE difference! Let you buy all sorts of good stuff hehehe

[Kirk]

Hi Clare - A car fridge? You really are a "dedicated foodie" aren't you! LOL!

[clare eats]

yeah well it stops the milk going sour... keeps the meat cold and would have let you buy the frozen mangosteen :P

Aren't they a big thing over there? You can get one for $30 (small) here

[elmomonster]

Kirk,

Loved your post! It must be shocking to see that Hong Kong Plaza pop up like daisy. But yes, it was an inordinately hot weekend...I was actually going to go to San Diego to escape the heat...but I ended up at Newport Beach instead.

In any case I can't believe you took a picture of the "Implant" store and "Hang Out" tea shop on the corner of Fullerton and Colima...I've always laughed about that too...what an unfortunate pairing of shops!

[Kirk]

Hi Clare - You need to just refrigerate those cows a little longer! LOL! I don't know of anyone who has car-friges, that sounds handy - we still do the ol' ice chest thing here. What happens when you stop for lunch, the frig doesn't keep running does it?

Hi Elmo - Thanks. We were stuck in traffic (as usual) at that damn Fullerton/Colima intersection whining about the heat and traffic when I looked up and saw the sign and had a chuckle. There used to be alot more "unfortunate" signs around the neighborhood (especially when it came to Chinese Markets selling Coke) when we lived there. Lucky you didn't attempt the drive down to SD, traffic on the 5 South was nasty!

[clare eats]

no it doesnt, unless you have a seperate battery (it does happen) but they are well insulated so a stop usually is ok. We also have cold bags that keep stuff at the temperature you put it in at for 3 hours which is pretty good too :)

[Kirk]

Hi Clare - Interesting - I'll go and check those out. I have a Wine Bag that looks like a back-pack and keep things cold for 4+ hours.

[Jo]

I've heard of the car fridges Clare. Bay Area folks don't really have much need for them though. It's never really all that hot and things are so "dense" that one really doesn't have to be concerned with excess travel time. We do have "electric" ice chests but they are advertised for camping. I don't see why they couldn't be used in the car though...

[Kirk]

Hi Jo - You're probably right - I mean the furthest I drive is about 120 miles each way - ice chest does fine. I'm probably obsessed with getting a new "toy" - after all it's not like I drive to MountainView everyday, right? ;)

[Jo]

Tell you what, if you go camping it would be really nifty!

[clare eats]

yep :)

[Kirk]

Hi Jo & Clare - I guess not much need for it then...not really a "camper". :)

[clare eats]

Noooo
Good for camping, great for bringing back perishables from HUGE shopping extravaganzas! Like frozen Mangosteen :P or frozend dumplings or ice cream etc :)

[Kirk]

Well the little wine bag did good for two whole days...so I'm happy with that! As for dumplings, my MIL makes them when she visits, from scratch...dough and all! So I'll just wait! LOL!