I’ve been getting over that flu/cold thing that’s been going around the Twin Cities this winter. At least it’s given me time to catch up on TV shows and movies.

Now, The Good Place series finale is how you close out a show. 

Back when my mom passed away, a friend lent me his DVD set of Six Feet Under, an HBO series that chronicles a family of undertakers. Watching it start to finish helped him come to peace with death and he hoped I’d feel the same. Six Feet Under remains one of my favorite series ever, but The Good Place got me closer to where Six Feet could not.

I also watched Booksmart which is a movie streaming on Hulu. It’s painfully relatable if you were also a nerd like me coming to terms with spending your grade school (and college) years like Amy. Now we’re all Lisa Kudrows and Jason Sudeikis’s.

Finally, I curiously watched Midsommar streaming on Amazon. I had already spoiled this movie for myself so I kept my finger on the fast-forward. It’s completely upsetting and creepy, but also beautifully filmed and compelling.

I would be really upset about flying all of the way to Sweden and driving four hours to find myself at a cult where you sit outside all day. If I ever join a cult, it’s going to be a very inside cult.

I haven’t seen Parasite yet but I really wanted to make Maangchi’s recipe for Jpapaguri that’s appeared in my social media feeds. I visited two of the larger Asian grocery stores in the Twin Cities looking for packs of Chapagetti and Neoguri.

United Noodle’s ramen section seems a lot smaller than it used to be. I remember there used to be a couple aisles of noodles and found one on this visit. Still it felt slightly larger than Ha Tien Supermarket’s ramen noodle section. Neither had these two items.

Here’s what I brought home from United Noodle (I already know we like Indo Mie Mi Goreng and Nongshim Shin Black):

This being my first visit to Ha Tien’s Super Market on Suburban, I was very impressed. I’ve never seen an Asian grocery in a former Lunds/Byerly’s – same carpet, some same signage, but all Asian food! I was impressed with the deli which seems very popular.

You can order from a variety of affordable hot entree items, banh mi’s, sesame balls, eggrolls, spring rolls and cream cheese wontons and iced coffee. There’s also the packs of pork sticky rice The Growler featured once as their Bite of the Week.

The vegetarian options are limited. 

Having heard so much about Ha Tien’s BBQ pork banh mi (around$5.50), I ordered one along with six cream cheese wontons (only $3). The sandwich is made fresh to order and wrapped in foil to keep it warm. I liked the sweet and savory flavors.

The cream cheese wontons are a basic but fine. The dab of cream cheese inside tastes straight-forwardly like cream cheese which I kind of like. I wouldn’t go out of my way for these, but also wouldn’t not buy them if I’m here. Six for $3 is a good deal. Mine didn’t come with any sauce which was OK because I have some at home.

Anyway, other than resting, this was my adventure for the weekend.

What I ended up making for dinner:

Two flavors of Mi Goreng noodle packages with sliced omelette, stir-fried bok choy and tofu puffs. 

Start with one whole noodle pack’s worth of seasoning. Then add the second to taste. Drizzle in some of the hot noodle water for moisture.