Ask a foodie: Global goods from Pacific Rim Market will rock your kitchen

This week, I finally visited the Pacific Rim Market at 1537 Independence St. in Cape Girardeau. The Pacific Rim Market is truly a grocery store, but I walked in expecting to find a store full of mostly Chinese and Japanese dried goods. They do have these things, such as all the noodles you could ever imagine, but they also have a wide variety of fresh and frozen fares as well. Let me tell you about some of my favorites I found there.

From the Asian side of things, they had so many candies. No Pocky that I could see (which is a chocolate coated biscuit stick thinner than a straw), but that was no loss, because you can find Pocky in a lot of mainstream stores nowadays. What my daughter and I did find was a delightful cookie called Hello Panda -- adorable little crunchy cookies about the size of a nickel are generously stuffed with chocolate crème. On each cookie is an image of an unbearably cute panda swinging or skiing or something equally sweet. They were tasty and different, and I will be buying them again.

I will also repeat-buy a cookie called Yan Yan. These were sweet cracker sticks with printed animal silliness on each stick that you dunk into a chocolate dip. The dip is just right, smooth, creamy and not too sweet. Very similar to the Nutella sticks and dip found at other stores, but I preferred the chocolate taste of Yan Yan's dip to Nutella (don't hurt me).

I found canned lychees, which I was actually looking for. When I was in college, I had the pleasure of knowing a student from Hong Kong named Lim. She was a generous and beautiful soul who delighted in answering all of our questions about her country and loved bringing in foods for our lunch break. One time she brought in canned lychees, which is a super sweet, white-fleshed fruit from China. She served the lychees straight from the can onto a bowl full of ice. She made us wait while the ice chilled the lychees, and when we could finally try them, they were cold and crunchy and unlike any familiar fruit. I plan on eating my can the same way and smiling as I remember Lim.

On the savory side, we purchased a ramen noodle pack version of Pad Thai. I have not tried this yet, but it looked interesting. I also bought some pre-made pork, shrimp, and scallop frozen dumplings and they were delicious. There were freezers full of frozen goods such as dumplings, whole squid, and several different kinds of whole fish. They also have a small but flavor-packed produce section, and I immediately recognized some bitter melon. Bitter melon is a common staple in a lot of stir fries, but this is the first time I have ever seen it in my area. I also saw some genuine Thai sweet basil, which is absolutely necessary in making pad thai. Speaking of pad thai, remember my article some time ago about how the main spice in it is a powdered bean called tamarind? They have that as well, in several different forms, including a sweet candy. They also had beautiful bottles of soy sauce in different flavors, such as mushroom soy sauce. That sounds like a little bit of bliss to me!

Hello Panda cookies from Pacific Rim Market in Cape Girardeau.Submitted by Rebecca LaClair

As far as Middle Eastern food goes, I saw some fresh and authentic labna, which is a very thick yogurt similar to Greek yogurt. Sometimes it is formed into balls and stored in olive oil, often spiced with such things as dried mint or za'atar. Za'atar itself is something you should try if you haven't. It's a spice mix generally containing oregano, thyme, marjoram, sesame seeds and salt. There are many varieties on the theme, but it is an awesome meat seasoning, good in an olive oil and vinegar salad dressing base and delicious mixed with labna as a dip for vegetables or a topping for gyros.

There was so much good stuff in Pacific Rim that I have not seen elsewhere. I'm trying to keep my article coherent, but the possibilities keep coming at me and I can't help but be excited. There is so much to try! Mustard-flavored oil, ginger paste, dried shitake mushrooms, canned quail eggs, preserved duck eggs if I ever get that brave.

Next time, maybe next time.