Fa Ra Ra Ra Ra

So, I'm excited to go to Maryland to hang with my brother and sister-in-law (and their dog) for a few days before going to see my family in NC for Christmas. Amongst other reasons (aforementioned dog) I am excited because they are both really into food (so is the dog, actually, but she has an undeveloped palate). My brother is more of a sophisticated chef than I am and likes to play around with recipes and cooking methods and, especially, inexpensive ingredients.
Which brings us to the H-Mart located on Georgia Ave. in Wheaton, MD.
Ah, the H-Mart.
The H-Mart is a specialty Asian import grocery store. You can find all sorts of vegetables virtually unheard of in English-speaking America as well as authentic Asian food items, rice noodles, seaweed wrappers, whatever the hell else they eat over there. But the greatest thing about the H-Mart is the price of their meat. It seems that all their beef, chicken, and pork items are listed at rediculously low prices.
But this is NOT to say that a trip to the H-Mart won't cost you.
Have you ever seen the videos of the factory farms they have set up for chickens being raised for the express purposes of slaughter? Just baby chickens everywhere, stepping all over each other, aimlessly wandering, confused...That is what I picture in my head when I think of the H-Mart, masses of confused people aimlessly meandering around. Trying to get through the parking lot alone is enough of an experience that most could license the rights to Hollywood for the story.
Maneuvering your car around the virtual sea of people (?), yeah, I will call them people, is an exercise in skill. Throw all the miserable, MISERABLE, DC Metro area drivers that try to navigate the lot (blindfolded, apparently) into the mix, and you essentially become part of a Van Damme action movie.
Like I said, a trip to the H-Mart could cost you, heavily at that. So when deciding whether or not to go there you really have to weigh out the risk/ reward analysis.
So, this year for the holidays I will be very excited to see the dog (god, I love that dog) but I may forever be spiteful and angry at my brother when he starts cooking up a delicious holiday meal and I, inevitably, hear him ask "Hey, could you run over to the H-Mart and pick up some 'insert meat product here'."
What an asshole...
I love that dog.