Winter has re-appeared, which on the West Coast means rain. Fighting gusty winds, we ventured out to the main library; then to the Friends of the Library bookstore to forage for books. The Bookmark is in downtown Oakland. Whomever selects the books there has good taste because the shelves are crowded with mysteries that I would definitely choose to read if I hadn't read them already. So empty-handed, we returned to the car, which was parked in front of a Chinese grocery with a sign saying that it specialized in Afro-Caribbean and Latino foods.
Intrigued, we investigated. We discovered weird-looking roots like Taro and other gnarled knobby things that we'd never heard of, huge bags of Cassava and Fufu powder, plantains, Casaba melons, coconuts in their hairy shells, goat meat, cow's feet, a dozen brands of curry powder, some in huge vats, all manner of molasses and syrups and a hot sauce with a label that said, "Hot Sauce from Hell. Beyond Hot!" A red devil with pitchfork grinned, either in welcome or warning, his teeth sizzling from the heat.
I was thrilled to find hominy in its natural state rather than the canned precooked kind, as well as millet and wheat berries. (I've been experimenting with grains and these are hard to obtain.) But the strangest item was labelled "Stock Fish. Cod from Norway." Dried cod, I suppose, but it looked like long stringy pieces of driftwood stacked in a barrel -- pieces that were taller than my waist. I can't imagine who would actually buy this. One piece would provide you with enough fish stock for decades.
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