Ikea and the First Oriental Supermarket

Since Randy had today off, we went shopping. Now that we have a house, there is room for some things that we couldn't fit into the RV while we lived there. We went to Ikea in Orlando where we bought a little but looked a lot, planning for the very near future. We had lunch at the Ikea restaurant, where we discussed how much their food has gone downhill. It just doesn't seem to have much flavor; maybe they are using generic products? 

From there we went looking for the First Oriental Supermarket. Randy likes to pick up some items not available at Publix, and it's always fun to look around. The deli section features a display of meats that looks appropriate for Halloween, with heads and bodies hanging on hooks. Of course, these are pork, which makes me hungry, not scared.

But the fruit section is pretty; someone went to a lot of trouble to put up all those flowered garlands.

Oriental grocery stores are where I find foods that I didn't know were food. Like Eucommiae. This stuff looks like tree bark.

Thanks to Google and Google translate, I learned that this actually is bark, from Eucommiae ulmoides trees, commonly called "hardy rubber trees". It's used as a tea in Chinese herbology to treat leprosy arthritis, backache, knee aches and kidney problems. 

And nearby is this package, which looks like small tree branch pieces. 

And that is exactly what it is. This is Dried Millettia Speciosa Champ root, and I had a hard time finding info about it. But according to the Institute for Traditional Medicine, "This group of plants represents a relatively recent addition to the Chinese Materia Medica, first recorded two centuries ago in the Bencao Gangmu Shiyi (Omissions from the Grand Materia Medica, 1765 A.D.), where it was said that it "activates blood, warms the waist and knees, and cures paralysis caused by wind." Two centuries ago is recent? Yes, in Chinese medicine, I guess it is.