I always wonder about those little packages of 'pickled vegetable' like mustard or seaweed or whatever else. You just add them to noodles?
That's what I do yeah! I tend to throw them in with the dry rice or noodles because it doesn't seem to matter, they stay crunchy after the ~20 minutes of cooking and it gets the vinegar and spiceyness into the rice or the noodle-soup. I've never really had an objectionable result with them, aside from the normal mistake of eating too much spicey before bed.
I really like turnips in particular for some reason. This asian deli-grocery I used to live near had these *lovely* turnip cakes. As far as I know they were just ground up turnip grilled in a lot of oil and salt, but they were a sweet spot of chewy and starchy-sweet. Like potato bits in tortillas <3
Oh yeah I also got some fresh shredded seaweed in the fridge - it also seems unaffected by cooking with the rice, and doesn't seem to add much taste at all, but adds a nice green crunchy-chewy to a bowl of rice. They sell salted variants but the fresh tastes better, a rare occasion where even I can tell.
Aaand as a particularly rare treat, I got some big pork dumplings (with spinach!). I expect them to stay in the freezer a while, but I'm sure I'll get a hankering and steam one up (in the rice cooker's steamer tray!) before too long. I doubt there's much pork in them but that's fine by me, I want the taste and also the spinach.
I'm soooo lazy when it comes to cooking, but I'm always pleasantly surprised at how far even this tiny amount of effort (dumping cool veggies and carbs in a pot) can go.
(and all the beans help balance it nutritionally, but tbh even I am getting sick of beans. They're just so easy to store in mass, dry!)
OH I ALSO GOT MISO PASTE yessss! White miso, very salty, a little goes a long way in any soup.
And huh, a bag of salted turnip slices. I guess it's obvious that I experimented a lot with this visit. I'm going to just have to see whether they're any good by themselves, or more likely I throw them in the pot.
Lays (tm) (r) brand cucumber-flavored potato chips are definitely a win, though. I love the harsh vinegar of pickle chips a lot, but that just makes these more pleasant as a change of pace.
plus some earl grey tea because I don't know tea from coffee, particularly when only half the options have English, but I know this type tastes pretty great
edit: I also have like a quarter pound left of dry assorted mushrooms, which is several dishes worth of dry mushrooms. resist to urge the snack on them, they do need rehydrating. They always turn the rice (or couscous!) a deep dark color as the mushroomy taste infuses everything - and then they're nice a chewy too!