2020 did NOT help me find an asian store!

the INSANE quest for galangal and kaffir lime leaves in cinci! I decided Saturday to make Tom Kha Gai soup. I went to Kroger that afternoon and got all of the ingredients they would carry, I could have sworn I saw galangal at Whole Foods last week, so I tried them next (nope) – then off to the closest asian store I’d scoped online – 10 mins southwest “happy asian market” – closed. so I drove 25 minutes north to the huge CAM int’l – closed! (even tho both were supposed to be open based on their hours). CAM at least had a sign that explained they had reduced their hours for Chinese New Year (silly me!!!). So Sunday, the quest continues – back up to CAM (on my way to Costco) – can’t find galangal OR kaffir lime leaves – asked the older gentleman and we had trouble communicating – finally he calls his son over, who still has no clue what I’m talking about and with pictures on my phone and continued cryptic dialogue, they conclude that they carry both items, but are currently “no more” – please come back in 2 weeks. I then google where to get both items on my phone and strangely enough Walmart comes up on both – so I suspiciously try them – they think I’m completely nuts. so finally (while far north up near west Chester) I call the Happy Asian market and a man answers and says he has both items and is open until 8 (it’s about 2:30) YAY! I try to tell him I’ll be there in an hour. in the middle of my sentence I get “ok bye!” click. I do my Costco run (never again on a Sunday, thank you!) and head back, past my home to HAM – CLOSED! WTH???? I call him and get a recording. I go home and a couple of hours later (still only 6pm) I call him. he answers! (I can STILL run back there and make soup before the grammies!). I explain that he told me he’d be open and I was there and he was not. he says “did you come to the dayton store?” WHY would I call a 513 # with a cinci address and do so???. I said of course not, he says “well you are calling from a 937 area code, so I thought you wanted to come to dayton”. he then explains that the cinci store is closed indefinitely for “under construction” and suggests I drive to dayton at that moment. I try my local fresh market (which is listed as an “asian store near me” by yelp) and give up. all others are closed until Tuesday. foiled again. REALLY????😣

• This topic was modified 4 years, 10 months ago by Vicki.