I hope you have a car... My favorite Vietnamese grocery is next to Pho Tau Bay, near Stumpf Blvd. on the West Bank. Way closer to most of the city than Versailles, the Vietnamese community way out at the end of Chef Menteur, though that's worth checking out, as well, esp. early Saturday mornings for the market. In Metairie, Byblos Market has a huge selection of lentils, nuts, etc. It's on Veterans, near Foodies and Dorignac's. Somewhere in Metairie is an Indian grocery store, I don't remember where, you'd have to check the phone book. I like Byblos for its cleanliness and the freshness of the food. In the city, the Lebanese restaurant Mona's has several branches which have little grocery stores attached. They carry plenty of nuts and beans, but check for freshness- sometimes not so good. As for more traditional stores, there's a Foodie's on St. Charles, I think it's overpriced and has a crappy selection. There's a Langenstein's uptown on Arabella St., they have a great selection of native sausages and smoked meats. Of course there are the two Whole Foods. If you live by the lake, Lakeview Fine Foods on Robert E. Lee apparently has good stuff; I've never been there. Martin's Wine Cellar is my favorite for wine and cheese, plus they have an extensive selection of international groceries. The latter are overpriced, however. There are two other weekly farmer's markets besides the Saturday one: Tuesdays 10-1 at Uptown Square on Broadway, and Thursdays 4-7 at the American Can Company over in Bayou St. John. As for Winn-Dixie vs. Robert, I think Sav a Center trumps them both. Avoid A&P at all costs. Hope this exhaustive survey helps. If you stumble across anything else, will you kindly post it here? Thanks.
