Believe it or not, there are some food items that my family has a taste for, which just aren’t carried at the local HEB, Texas's regional grocery chain par excellance. Bit of a shock to find that out, I know, since the HEB stores present an unimaginable range of culinary delights, with fresh local produce, in-store bakeries and delis – but it’s true. Even the HEB dynamo's tippy-top-of-the-line stores, the so-called Central Market outlets, have left a few of our personal food quirks  un-met. Some of those taste preferences were acquired through our eccentric family background and others through long service overseas, and so HEB can perhaps be forgiven for missing out. Since we have located a source of suitable subs for our favored foods from among certain local ethnic grocery stores – well, we won’t hold that against them.

 

 The family legend has it that my very English Great-grandmother Alice carried around her own personal stock of tea – and when asking for hot tea in a restaurant, demanded that the staff supply her only with a tea-pot and a kettle of water – and said kettle had better still be bubbling when it was carried to her table. So, yes – tea is one of those absolutes. In my house, tea is made with bubble-boiling water, and loose tea leaves. One heaping teaspoon per cup capacity in the tea pot, plus another additional for the pot. When the water boils, pour some into the pot, slosh it around, just long enough to warm the pot, and then put in the tea leaves and more bubble-boiling water. Steep until - well, it's done. We take it with milk and sugar, British-fashion, and the stronger the better. As my Liverpudlian Granny Dodie used to say – it should be strong enough to trot a mouse over. (A completely unsanitary and perhaps revolting mental image) – but still, a good cuppa must be strong, solid, powerful – the stuff that fueled the building of an empire. Tea bags are for sissies and people too lazy to bother with preparing a good pot of tea. It is my firm contention also that commercial tea bags are made from the crumbing, dusty remnants of tea leaves swept up from the floors and corners of tea warehouses. We found that excellent loose tea from India and Sri Lanka is available in Asian and Middle Eastern markets - Wagh Bakri International Blend was recommended to us, which is as strong as my Great Granny Alice would have demanded.But I am getting ahead of myself.

 And because we spent some wonderful years living in Greece, and my daughter had a TDY in Egypt – we like real yoghurt, that sort of yoghurt which is as sour and rich as sour cream, not adulterated with gelatin and disgustingly artificial fruit flavors. There were other foods that we had a yearning for – and even venues such as Sun Harvest Farms and Whole Foods just didn’t come close to meeting. Those yearnings were met, almost by accident, when we discovered an Asian grocery, in a cunning disguise.

 From the outside, it looks like a completely ordinary gas station quicki-mart, on the corner of IH 35 East and Starcrest. The gas pumps and a nearly defunct pay phone add to the illusion of being completely common-place, and even slightly sordid. A step inside - it still looks like a gas-station quicki-mart: cigarettes and lottery tickets, and all. But this is deceptive – farther inside, this is a cave of delights, stacked high with exotic good food of every sort; fresh or frozen, take-away, or in bulk; dairy, candy, dried, liquid . . .  it’s all there, stacked up to the ceiling. The only business establishment I have ever encountered with a better disguise of it's real purpose was a money-exchange place in Itaewon, South Korea, which looked like a retailer of exotic underwear.

What I liked from the first moment I ventured inside, was how it smelled. It smelled pleasant and faintly perfumery - that would be the boxes of oriental incense, stacked up above the freezer and refrigerator display cases. All along the front windows are racks filled with twenty-pound sacks of rice, Jasmine and Basmanti rice, with it’s own faint sweet scent. And bags of black and herbal teas, of candy and spices, pastries, and frozen entrees and fresh vegetables  . . .  the owners and the regular staff are friendly and open, terribly helpful, happy to recommend this or that, explain what dish this spice is used in, or what brand is better than another. My daughter discovered bags of plain puffed rice cereal, and boxes of the candy which usally goes by the name of Turkish Delight. There are grains, beans and pastas here for a price which will definitly keep us out of Whole Foods for the forseeable future.

 

And plus - we finally learned - from the instructions on a twenty-pound sack of rice which we bought here - how to cook it so that the leftover rice makes excellent fried rice. The trick is to soak a measure of rice in cold water for half an hour - and then drain it, and swifly pour the soaked rice into an equal measurement of boiling water. Cover the pot and turn down the heat - and the rice will cook in a very few minutes, fluffy and with every grain separate. This Asian grocery is actually the second one that we take our custom to: the first was in a highish-end neighborhood in a  rather attractive strip-mall on Thousand Oaks; the owners there were also terribly friendly and helpful, but the shop was often deserted of all but us, when we came for tea, and yoghurt and Turkish Delight. We rather feared that the owner couldn't make a living - fears which were born out when the place closed. This one - in it's cunning disguise as a gas-station quicki-mart - is much livelier. There are always customers, even if they are only paying for gas and buying cigarettes and lottery tickets. But the prepared foods and fresh vegetables turn over very fast, and the shelves are always full to bursting - so, we think this grocery will be around for a good bit. 

 (He's not the owner, actually - but the duty manager, I think. He's always there, whenever we stop in - and I can't imagine a more helpful and professional retail person.)