Chinatown Adventure

[triedunture]

So what with Mother's Day coming up and my dad's birthday around the corner, plus my new bento box obsession, I decided the thing to do was go to Chinatown today and get some kit.

I've long ago given up on getting meaningful and practical gifts for my family. Now I just go out of my way to find the most useless and retarded gifts I can find. At the Pearl River Mart on Broadway, I saw a lot of crazy shit: a plastic panda whose tail you cranked in order to sharpen the pencil you stuck in the hole where its mouth should be, wind-up monkeys that flip and fart, and wind chimes that doubled as samurai weapons. This is how stuff is in Chinatown: weird touristy stuff is placed right next to sponges and Raid and normal everyday stuff, and there's a whole bunch of stuff in between. Nothing is arranged with any rhyme or reason. I found a small collection of bento boxes downstairs, then in the basement corner, some children's bentos, and then upstairs, another collection of boxes ranging from family size to baby. One Korean bento maker is called, no joke, Lube Sheep. And every kiddie bento is proudly stamped: Made by Lube Sheep!

There was food too, and I bought a packet of crystallized ginger for mom because she lives for ginger, and some bacon flavored novelty items for dad, and then. I found it. Something way more stupid than a panda pencil sharpener.



It's a complete set of corn-shaped plates and corn-shaped corn holders, just for corn. Now mom can make enough corn for six people and serve them with the pinnacle of ridiculous plateware.

Mom may have actually raised an idiot. I take a strange sort of pride in that. I can't wait to see how she reacts to this. It's even better than the die-cast model of the Empire State Building, complete with plastic King Kong.

I didn't buy a new bento box, even though they had some adorable ones. Just couldn't spend the money. But I did pick up more soba noodles, which were $1 cheaper than in midtown, and a bamboo steamer, and an onigiri shaper. And sesame candy. God, I love sesame candy.

Today is still young! I am going to make some little turkey meatballs that will be good in my bentos for the week, and then I'm going to make some zucchini cakes, and then I'm going to watch 2 more discs of Torchwood. Is there going to be a m/m kiss soon? Not that I'm complaining about the lesbo loving. Just wondering.

Off I go to kick some kitchen ass.