Hi all. I've been in search of a good thai grocers for ages since my exposure to thai food. The problem is that there is not many thai here that's why it is hard to find thai grocers. My search was all over the country to as far as Vancouver and Montreal. To my surprise, I could find thai tea / coffee in Vancouver and kaffir limes (not the leaves, but the actual limes) in Montreal. I was already very happy then. Then I moved to Toronto and was trying to find a good source for thai ingredients. I was disappointed that I couldn't find any good brands of fish sauce, shrimp paste etc since most Asian grocers are owned by Chinese. It's true that you can find *some* stuff in Vietnamnese restaurants but it's just not the same. Until I read some forum which pointed me to Vietianne. I believe the owners are 100% Thai and their store has a thai name as well. So I made a trip there (yeah it's really nowhere near to downtown and quite far from where I live [Richmond Hill]). I would say from then on, whenever I crave for thai ingredients I *always * make a trip there! What can you find there? Tons of thai ingredients! Best brands of coconut milk (cheaper than most places too), shrimp paste, fish sauce, thai tea / coffee, thai shrimp ships. Also is the array of rare fresh vegetables such as thai pea eggplants, sadao leaves, neem leaves, kaffir limes, grachai, tumeric, galanga etc etc. I would recommand this grocer to anyone who is really into Thai cooking. If you are starting to cook thai, I think visit to Vietnamnese grocers would suffice. But if you need rare and more exotic ingredients, Vientianne is the place to go! Happy cooking and shopping!
