First week of work complete! A little overwhelming, but the team is so nice and supportive.
R&J took me to Summer Palace to celebrate. I didn't have AYCE sushi, but the orange chicken lunch I ordered was really good, one of the best!
After, we went to a new Asian grocery, Mei's Supermarket. They opened in an old Publix a year ago, I think. It's very big and has a huge selection of products, produce, meat/seafood, frozen foods, a bakery, and a little café. I bought some baby bok choy, wonton skins, and other stuff, and Mom said the prices are not bad, too.
I also bought my favorite Asian snacks that I couldn't find at the MI/Melbourne oriental stores. Pineapple & lychee shortcakes and coconut butter cookies were good. Green tea Panda snacks were very good (even better than the chocolate flavor we found at Aldi). The boba tea in a can was a little disappointing; the taro milk tea was good, but the boba were more like mushy gelatin than squishy-chewy tapioca pearls.
The Chinese bakery was great! Buns and egg tarts were buy 5, get 1 free. I got 3 HK egg tarts & 3 Portuguese egg tarts; custard, coconut, & taro buns; roast pork bao, roast pork bun, & steamed pork/veg bao. All were very yummy, but the Portuguese egg tarts were particularly good, so rich & creamy!
R spent over $50 at the store, and they gave her a free boba tea or dim sum dish ($4 value). She chose steamed custard buns and gave one to me.
They also sold sticky rice dumplings! I didn't get the sweet red bean ones, just the pork & salted egg ones, which were delicious! I'll definitely get more next time. Dad (& Mom) missed it and enjoyed it.
On the way home, we stopped at Cosmic Creamery, and I ordered their ube ice cream. It's a bit pricey, but it's hard to find. Mom & Dad enjoyed it, too, though we agreed that it could have less sugar and more ube flavor.
R also gave us a sweet potato pie baked by her friend. It was very flavorful but also too sweet, a bit like eating pumpkin cookie dough.
Edit to add: Went to Mei's again two weeks later. This time, I spent over $50 and got free dim sum (very soft, fluffy, & tasty roast pork bao). R spent over $100 and got a free meal box!
