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| - . Great for a date. Start here.
After working up healthy appetites wandering along the numerous aisles of this strip mall indoor bazaar, packed and stacked with colorful imported display-ibles, drinkables, and edibles, head for The Rail, near Sear's rear. Try their Rail Burger, medium---a classic preparation with American cheese, lettuce, tomato, and raw onion. It's fabulous!
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I hadn't been to a World Market for years, but made a quick side trip in search of just one thing---among the probably ten thousand or more offered: ginger snaps in a blue tin. A friend of my husband's claimed that these were "the best". He couldn't remember the name---only that it was a blue container. Always on the hunt for the "best of" ANYTHING, World Market was added to my Marc's and Bed Bath & Beyond shopping list.
Just an hour earlier I'd made a doctor's visit for serious ankle swelling. While doing yardwork, I was bitten---or stung---by something hiding in the shrubs. This was not your typical garden-variety bug, either. Not mosquito, ant, spider, or even yellow jacket. I've had those---those were nothing compared to THIS. Like being jabbed with a long hypodermic needle (think Pulp Fiction) I actually screamed and yelped out loud "THAT WAS A FIVE STAR STING!...But I DON'T recommend it. At ALL!" Instantaneous excruciating pain, followed soon after by numbness and redness, this might have been a starving vampire bat or rabid sewer rat---maybe even a rattlesnake. (Not.) Heating pad and antibiotics prescribed. But when on a momentous hunt for---of all things---cookies (???), diehard curious food-trekkers will ignore any discomfort, and proceed onward. To do otherwise would be weak, cowardly. I was about to embark on another quest for the best---the legendary, rare, one-of-a-kind, Blue-Tinned Ginger Snap.
With only a short time to squeeze World Market into an already very busy Saturday afternoon---much like that feeling of the tour bus scheduled to depart in just 15 minutes and if I missed it---here, in the middle of a desert, and no one speaks English---I'd never be heard from again (many, I'm sure, can identify with that stomach-fluttering sensation)---I avoided all tempting furnishings, alluring cookware, and mass-produced original art. Like speed-reading---but thoroughly, comprehensively---I scanned only the shelves of FOOD ITEMS, and still managed to drop into my cart, Spanish smoked paprika, Swedish flax seed and hearty crispbreads from WASA (also at GE, but these were on sale), and their own brand of potato chips made in an unspecified location, but somewhere in the USA. Not bad. And not imported from Pago Pago or Easter Island. I also sampled a few food items on display for tasting (all good enough, but nothing I couldn't live without) and spotted a shelf of Pocky's---that irresistible Asian sweet treat---in about 4 varieties. But after what was now maybe 10 unsuccessful minutes, and believing I had covered the entire food area---I could see that my hopes of ever finding the elusive---almost mythical
---snaps, were nearing the dashed level. Were they sold out? Worse!---what if they didn't carry these "best" ever, anymore?
Reluctantly---because I'm pretty resourceful---I relented and asked Kevin for help. He was a friendly, knowledgeable guide, even offering to, then quickly scaling a high wall of unopened cartons, but without luck. He then enlisted the assistance of the official "gourmet girl". Didn't get her name, but she was friendly and helpful, too, and led Kevin and me through the overstocked jungle of edible imports to the very edge. And there it was---ahead, in a clearing---a small mountain of bright shiny Blue Tins. NYAKERS PEPPARKAKO. Seriously---how could ANYONE not remember that name. hehe. Shipped here from Sweden, 1.10 lbs. each, and $7.99 on sale for only $4.99. Many many sincere thanks, then rushing off to the checkout---and ANOTHER smiling, friendly employee. Yeesh. It's TOO nice in here. (Loved it. You will, too. Unless you're one of those cuddly negative types.)
Started the car and was about to pull out when I decided to have my OWN taste sampling. Got out my pocket knife (yes) and cut the plastic seal around the can. Thin, 2 inch wide wafers packed like sardines. (Less likely to break. Those
ever-sensible, ever-efficient Swedes.) The first one---gingery, slightly peppery
---small bites, like those initial slow deliberate sips of a newly-tried, expensive fine wine. The second, quicker, with more eagerness and savoring, but less thought. Then the third---just to confirm it's deliciousness---but no little bites now, just the whole thing shoved right in. mm-mm-mm.
Pulled the key out of the ignition, and a couple minutes later returned to my car with two more tins. I'll be back. If I'm THIS lucky in less than half an hour, who knows WHAT I might discover in one or two.
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