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Every now and again, I take an hour or so and spend some time at the Super 88 market, an Asian supermarket not far from my apartment. It is about as authentic as you are likely to find in Boston, and between the staff, shoppers, and goods, there is very little to be found in the way of English…spoken or written. It’s part adventure trip, part culture exploration, and part actual grocery shopping trip.

Whenever I go to Super 88, my cart usually ends up containing 10% items intended for specific recipes and dishes, and about 90% items that I have never seen before. With prices (specifically for snacks and sweets) that are beyond reasonable, it is quite easy to grab a few shopping bags full of never seen before Asian snacks for under $30.

On today’s trip, I grabbed a good amount of cheap, and interesting things, most of which came in at under $2 and had zero English on the labels. In some cases, I literally have no idea what the items are, which makes the tasting kind of fun.

Here is what I came back with:

Garlic Cracker Nuts. Probably the most basic looking item of the lot. Though I don’t know if they are crackers or nuts. Not sure how they could be both simultaneously.

Yam Yam, which appear to be some sort of strawberry cream covered crunchy stick…complete with little sayings on them.

PANDA LAND! Panda printed biscuits that are “best quality”. How can I miss?

"Sac Sac (orange)" drink and an apple soda. I can’t say I have ever had a carbonated apple beverage.

I quite literally have no idea what these are. There isn’t a single English word on the label. It is a candy I think…it was in the candy section.

Rice crackers, that much I know. This is one of what appeared to be 5 or so different varieties or flavors, not sure what this one is. Red might mean spicy, which I like, so we’ll see.

All I could tell with these, is that they are peaches, just not sure the form. Presumably dried or something, and awfully pink looking.

Spicy prawn flavored crackers. I have high hopes for these, don’t ask me why, they just look like they could be tasty.

If we can do prawn crackers, why not chicken flavored crackers?

Another item from the candy section, with not a word of English on it. The chicken graphic worries me, as I have zero idea what this is.

Though the above items are odd, this is far from the most out there stuff at Super 88. I skipped the durian flavored candy for instance, and passed on the chips of dried unidentified fish.

None of this stuff will be consumed today, but I will bring it all with me tomorrow when I go see my family. They are not the most adventerous bunch when it comes to eating (I am far away the most adventerous eater in my family), so it should be fun to break this stuff out and see what everyone is willing to try. I’ll report back on the findings.