Unas de mis cosas FAVORITAS

My new favorite song!!! So good!!! It's by two of my favorite Latino singers/groups, Juan Luis Guerra and Mana. (My other two favorites being Shakira and Juanes.)

Here's another new favorite song, Stolen by Dashboard Confessionals. Me gusta mucho!!

Okay as I was waiting in the car this afternoon, I heard yet another awesome song. Hey There Delilah by Plain White T's, I think Kayli might have mentioned this song in her blog but I had never heard it then. Anyway, I love it.

And here is my favorite supermarket in all of the Phoenix area: Lee Lee's. It's on the corner of Dobson and Warner (I think that's in Chandler) for any who live in the area or want to visit. It's awesome!!!! It's owned by this Vietnamese guy and they import stuff from all over the world. Here's a picture of chicken hearts and livers for sale, that was right next to the duck feet. Usually they have frog legs, but it's an ever changing store, there's different things on the shelf each time, which adds to the wonder of the whole store. Last time I wanted to buy yucca starch which they didn't have, this time they had it, but not Trigusar which is my favorite Colombian spice.

Here's live catfish, crab and lobsters; they often have live tilapia too.

Here's who knows what vegetables.More interesting fish.Fruit anyone? These are about the size of cantaloupe or bigger.If you click on the picture to make it bigger you can see the aisle for Thailand, Indonesia, and Holland (why Holland of all the European countries? Don't know, another magical thing about the store), right next to the aisle for Pakistan, Sri Lankan and India. There's also whole aisles just fro Japan and Korea. Then there's Colombia, Caribbean, and Africa, also Brazil and Argentina. Some Cajun stuff for good measure, and of course, all the Filipino nurses I worked with shopped here.

They also have huge packages of frozen fish eggs (that's how it was labeled), baby squid and octopus, fresh lemongrass, and shrimp chips (like potato chips)and other very interesting things.

This is Elena amazed at it all! Leo and I used to like to come here just to see the people who shopped here. I've seen people in complete African garb, and Indian (India) clothing with all the gold jewelry and and such, and also Arabics in the full black head to toe covering-forgot what they're called-used to know.

And last but definitely not least, this is my MOST FAVORITE RESTAURANT ON EARTH!!! (At least of the ones I've tried. ) It may look humble, but the food is to die for, really, I could eat here every day. I LOVE the hummus and tabooli and chicken shawarma and shish kabobs, and yogurt salad, and oh, everything else on the menu. The pitas here are simply delicious, (you may wonder how can pitas be that much better--well, I don't know, but they make other pitas taste like dirt). Oh, and the baklava, freshly baked, so many varieties (pistachio, almond, pecan, etc) it's almost impossible to eat just one. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. It has great Arabic music playing and a desert scene with a camel painted on one wall, hookahs for sale, along with dates and big blocks of feta cheese (several different kinds), and a picture of the Dome of the Rock on the wall beside a tv that's tuned to Muslims praying. Again, it's surprising to see the people who eat there, but for the opposite reason of Lee Lee's; it's surprising because there's so many umm, white middle class, which I think attests to how good the food is. It's on Apache between Rural and McClintock (in Tempe) for anyone wondering. I tried to get the waiter to give me the recipes today, and he took our email address, I hope, hope, hope, that he really sends them to me. I told Leo to leave a bigger tip, but he wouldn't.
I also wanted to post a picture of my other favorite restaurant in Arizona, it's in Mesa on Gilbert and Southern, but Leo wouldn't drive over there. It's Sekai, a Japanese food place. The sushi is delicioso!!!! I love SUSHI. I don't really like the rest of the food so well, I mean it's good Japanese food, but really I just go there for the sushi. Anyway, if you want sushi in Phoenix, go there.