ITECC – The closest thing to a Chain style grocery store I think I will find

We drove by our house, or what will be our house whenever we can move in to it, and checked out the nearby attractions and stores.
The most obvious store in the area is called Lao ITECC. I am sure it is some sort of acronym but I have absolutely NO idea what it stands for. If anyone can tell me I will be happy to update. It stands for Lao International Trade Exhibition and Convention Center. EDIT: Thanks to the CLO for telling me what ITECC means

The reason this store is my favorite is that it has SOO many Asian products. Yes, I know I live in Asia so it should be everywhere. There are really no big stores to carry it all in one place like in the states. (except for this one)
The only other option is to luck out and find some of the items at the local markets. Along the streets there are little shops that sometimes have food products but there is no logical order or stocking. So for the sheer overwhelming number of Asian products, ITECC is the place. It has only one down side. It is really far away from where I am at now. When I move it will literally be right next door, but that will take some time.
I did find some pretty cool things to take with me. In the first picture is a hollowed out coconut shell filled with some shaved coconut and from what I can tell, a rice gelatin. please correct me if you know what it is)

I had tried this brand before, but never this flavor. (The other flavor I tried being Grass Jelly Drink, quite delicious) It was essentially basil seeds inside of little gelatin-like pods in a simple-syrup. I won’t drink it again, because I don’t need so much sugar and the flavor was nothing exceptional.

MMMM Yellow curry paste! This packet was about 6x5 inches and it was the smallest. There were huge gallon containers of this stuff!

 

I bought myself a new cleaver here. The knives in the hotel are so flimsy that when I was cutting a carrot I ended up making one large crescent. That is simply unacceptable. I know that a cleaver is not a normal knife for everyday cutting. Let me explain. At the Chinese restaurant cleavers were the only knives we had and as a result, it is the knife I am the most comfortable using. More safety is required, but once you are comfortable enough using it then it is no different than any other knife.

In my opinion it is more important to use a tool you are familiar and comfortable with using that works than to use the technically correct one.

I may ruffle some feathers with that one but I have always had and favored a  minimalist kitchen. I even made scones this morning using my rice cooker as a bowl and a soup spoon for all of my measuring, for cups and teaspoons. (I would normally use a bowl but we don’t have any in the hotel. Go minimalism!) I don’t even have an oven, but I wanted scones so badly that I made it work with a microwave. Even though scones are not Asian I will write about them.