Ethnic Grocers

[Judy Wilson]

We recently put up a blog post about one of our favorite Asian markets. Do you use ethnic grocery stores? What type of stores are in your area? What items do you get? How often do you go there? Do you ever feel "out of your comfort zone?"

[Anonymous Modernist 393]

When I go to ethnic grocery stores although I feel out of place sometimes (usually when one of the food sample ladies is yelling in korean) I am usually so focused on looking at the food and trying to figure out uses that I forget about the people around me. I go quite a bit - at least once a month because there are so many different types of produce, herbs, spices and other products that you can't find really anywhere else. In my area (about 15 miles outside of washington dc) we have a lot of different ethnic grocery stores from middle eastern to asian to african to eastern european... it's really great.

[Judy Wilson]

Joe, Sounds like you live in an awesome, multicultural area! We've just blogged about spices at our local Indian grocer.

[Anonymous Modernist 5109]

Greetings,

http://www.gilttaste.com has some interesting ingredients. Last week they had a pint of finger limes for sale. Their prices can be ridiculous, but they do have some nice ingredients at times. http://www.opensky.com also has ethnic ingredients from time to time. Seth

[Anonymous Modernist 5109]

Wow, I was way off topic, sorry. My wife in I live in Houston and we have an amazing Chinatown (Beltway 8 and Belaire). We shop at the Asian markets twice a month. The vegetables and fruit are typically 25-50% cheaper than other supermarkets. We like to purchase snow pea leaves, baby bok choy, lemon grass, japanese yams, snow peas, chinese brocolli, yuzu, and dragon fruit. They also have really good prices on sea food (including geoduck). We also like to shop at the Middle Eastern grocery stores (in Houston off of Hillcroft) for green almonds, harissa, lamb meat, tea, halva, flat bread, and lots of amazing pastries.

Seth