Saturday, April 5, 2008

I Am So Going To Miss This...

I may or may not have mentioned this before, but the husband and I will be moving to Kodiak, AK this summer (in three months, give or take), and I am gradually getting used to the idea of us living there. We already have a house lined up, and I have been in contact with my future co-workers, so that when we move I'll just slide right in to my new position.

However, I have a lot of trepidation about how restricted we'll be, in so many aspects. For me, being a foodie, I'll only have Safeway, Wal-Mart and the on-base Commissary to shop at for groceries. This concerns me. But, there isn't much I can do about it.

In the mean time, I have decided to take as much advantage of my favorite places to shop while I still can (dead woman walking, people!). Today, we took my brother in-law and his girlfriend to do some sightseeing in Seattle (Experience Music Project & the Science Fiction Museum) and on the way out of town, we realized we had some time to kill. And lo and behold, at that moment, we were driving right through Chinatown!

I've been to Uwajimaya a handful of times, but mainly I was there on a mission, picking up some catered food for events and whatnot. I didn't get to actually do any shopping for myself all the time I've been there in the past. Today was much different!

We must have spend about 2 hours in Uwajimaya, oohing and ahhing over, well, everything!! We only intended to pick up a few snacks to munch on at home, but ended up needing two of those hand baskets that quickly filled up! We were amazed at the selection, and had I had more moolah, I would have stocked up on fish as well, but alas, we were trying to keep it under $50 (which we did... just barely).

The sake/beer aisle was incredible. I didn't know where to start. I'm kind of a dummy when it comes to recognizing quality sake, but my brother in-law's girlfriend was such a sweetheart and helped me choose which one I would most enjoy. (I'm sipping on some plum sake as I type this, and it's very good, much better than the white wine I usually swig during blog posts).

My husband and I loved the drink aisle, it was so huge, and again, the selection was vast. I got a Hello Kitty lychee juice that I'll be drinking tomorrow with lunch.

Once we got home, I dumped all our bags on the kitchen table for a quick shot before we dug in. The sweet stuff is mainly for me, as the husband doesn't have a big sweet tooth (yeah, just wait till he tries this stuff! He said that last night before he had a cupcake, and quickly changed his tune). There's some Asahi beer (very good, I had a sip) and another kind of beer that my brother in-law's gf likes, some assorted hot & spicy rice snacks (some w/seafood, some made from shrimp, etc), some matcha chocolates, chocolate covered mushroom bisquits, a sparkling dessert sake and plum sake, strawberry filled koala bear cookies, chili rice crackers and my Hello Kitty lychee juice.


I really am going to miss living in Seattle, with access to just about anything within minutes of my house (ok, so Uwajimaya is more like 30 minutes from my house, but it's within walking distance of where I work). I suppose I'm just going to have to splurge big time whenever I come home to visit!!
~Mehgan~



3 comments:

Tiffany @ Lattes And Life said...

So, can I move to Alaska with you? I promise I'll help you with the DB challenges. And we can take turns cooking.....I'll even do the cleaning. All you have to do is provide the room and board for me and my family. Really. It'll work! And we can talk to all the apples...just like in the movie!!! *sigh*

Anonymous said...

Stock up on those goodies you'll need! But I've heard and read that Alaska is sooo beautiful. Hope the move goes well.

Carrie said...

Meghan,

I am a military wife. I TOTALLY feel your pain. It is so hard to move away from the things that you finally feel are familiar. Moving into an area where you know you may be limited in resources is heart breaking too especially when you are a foodie like we..Don't worry thoug...like JJ said, just stock up on any non parishables that you know you love and just can't live without..start looking online for great shipping stores and keep resources handy, family and friends that can shop and ship for you. It saved my life several times while living in Guam and Italy. It is nice to see another Military chick on the foodie blogosphere and I will be checking back in...nice blog and great recipes :)

Carrie