Grand Mart in Sterling VA

[pork]

If anyone is in the Sterling area and knows where the Food Lion used to be on route 7...it's gone. I'm sure you are weeping copiously at the loss.

In its place there is now a "Grand Mart" which is a crazy 80% Asian 20% latino market. It's great! Nobody speaks english, but they have great produce (both red and green thai chiles in stock!)

There are TONS of all kinds of asian products on the shelves. Lots of dried mushrooms and seaweed. Every kind of noodle that exists. Prices are excellent. Meats look good, great selection of cuts you usually don't see. Chicken feet, pigs trotters, stock bones, great stuff.

The whole place smells like fish due to the fish being in the open. To be honest, the cut fish looked pretty skanky. The whole fish were of varying degrees of freshness. I'd buy fish whole there if at all, at least you can check the eyes and gills. They do have live blue crabs and THREE kinds of live snails.

Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised to find it there since good asian markets are in short supply in Loudoun Co. Also, I was really amused when, standing in line, bopping slightly to the music over the loudspeakers, I realized that the lyrics of the song I was listening to were "Shake that ass, girl, shake that ass, girl."

That shit wouldn't play at Food Lion, that's for sure!

[Malawry]

Hey Pork, I'm having a hard time picturing where this place is. What else was near the Food Lion that Grand Mart replaced? I go to Wegman's once or twice a month down in Sterling and would love to swing by Grand Mart as a supplement--usually produce and things like frozen ducks are so much cheaper at those places!

[bilrus]

Hey Pork, I'm having a hard time picturing where this place is. What else was near the Food Lion that Grand Mart replaced? I go to Wegman's once or twice a month down in Sterling and would love to swing by Grand Mart as a supplement--usually produce and things like frozen ducks are so much cheaper at those places!

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It is on Route 7 east of Sterling Park. Across from a Ford dealership, just down a bit from a shopping center with a Chik-fil-a out front. It is behind an IHOP and there is a decent Thai place called Tup Tim Thai in the same center.

I haven't been yet. Pork - do they carry fresh rice noodles in addition to dried?

[pork]

yeah that's where it is.

go to http://maps.google.com

and enter "cedar dr and harry byrd hwy, sterling va" in the search box and it'll give you a map.

I didn't see any fresh noodles, but it is possible they have them. I didn't check out the fridge case too closely. That section, although they do sell milk and queso fresco, is a little thin.

[PollyG]

We've been dining on their hanging tender steaks at $2.39/lb. These come in a cyropac and need to be trimmed and separated (there's a line of sinew down the middle, cut on either side to make 2 steaks) or you could buy them inexplicably presliced with the sinew still in.

I haven't gotten anything from the cut-to-your-specs on premises fish counter yet, but we have had several of the prepackaged salmon filets and they are of very good quality, as was the pre-cleaned squid. There's a limited selection of sashimi-grade fish, roes, and sometimes uni.

The produce selection is extensive and the prices are low.

So far, they're keeping the place very clean.

The location is across from the plaza on 7 just a bit west of Fairfax County Parkway that has a Shoppers Food Warehouse and Burlington Coat Factory.

[pork]

I haven't been yet.  Pork - do they carry fresh rice noodles in addition to dried?

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Update: Yes. Several kinds of fresh noodles.

Also noted that you can get head-on shrimp there, which I haven't been able to find at all out here in the burbs.

[Busboy]

I haven't been yet.  Pork - do they carry fresh rice noodles in addition to dried?

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Update: Yes. Several kinds of fresh noodles.

Also noted that you can get head-on shrimp there, which I haven't been able to find at all out here in the burbs.

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Check Great Wall for head on, live shrimp.

(Ever see the movie Tampopo?)

[Malawry]

This is all awesome info. I plan to check it out tonight and will report back on my findings.

[Malawry]

Thanks, Pork, for tipping me off to this place. It's very similar to the Han Ah Reum in Wheaton, just smaller with a less-extensive fish and produce department. I bought some supplies for the Asian noodle soup cook-off currently going on in the Cooking forum plus stocked up on other household staples (salad veggies, good soy sauce, etc). The produce is ample in variety and very gently priced, including rock-bottom prices on fresh herbs.

The whole ducks are a better price than I've seen elsewhere at $1.50/lb (for Maple Leaf brand)...they're usually $1.99/lb at Asian markets and much more elsewhere. Unfortunately, they are not pre-weighed...I always try to get the heaviest ducks I can and there was no way to tell besides guessing at relative size. Ground meat was also attractively priced, I picked up both beef and pork for various cooking projects. I do wish they labeled the beef with fat percentages. I didn't think the fish counter smelled all that much like anything, despite my pregnant supernose...I didn't look at it all that closely but the whole fish did appear fresh and the blue crabs were quite active.

The music was all techno-aerobicized pop, which amused me...Han Ah Reum always plays 80s favorites, but this place had fast music that kept you moving. I expected it to be busier than it was, but I guess most New Year's shoppers would have shown up earlier in the day or earlier in the weekend.

I had a light dinner at Tup Tim Thai beforehand thanks to Bilrus's recommendation...spring rolls and a delicate tofu-vegetable soup (I love total bills of $7.25...). Nice little neighborhood joint. And of course I went back to my old standard Wegman's afterwards to complete the evening o' food shopping.

[bilrus]

Made my first visit this weekend. I was impressed, especially with the meat section and the prices in the produce section. I was also pleasantly surprised that I was able to do almost all my shopping here, including a box of Frosted Cheerios and Fritos for my Super Bowl dip. Most of the (albeit smaller) Asian markets I've been to didn't have much selection of "Western" items.

[Chantilly Bob]

Made my first visit this weekend.  I was impressed, especially with the meat section and the prices in the produce section.  I was also pleasantly surprised that I was able to do almost all my shopping here, including a box of Frosted Cheerios and Fritos for my Super Bowl dip.  Most of the (albeit smaller) Asian markets I've been to didn't have much selection of "Western" items.

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There's also a GrandMart in Centreville. I used to buy the week's produce there until the twins came along. The produce dept. is fantastic -- in terms of both selection and price. Sometimes they have absurd specials, like bananas at $0.09/lb.

[bilrus]

Washington Post article on the Sterling Grand Mart from this weekend's Loudoun section, including quotes from Malawry and Pork.

[pork]

That is hysterical! Thanks for the tip!!

[Anonymouze]

I'm going to revive/bump this because while waiting at DMV the woman Ms Highland suggested going to Grandmart (after we shared some Korean conversation with her!) she said to come to her for more lessons - LOL - !

We had been talking about finding Hahn Ah Reum... so she said OH, go to Grandmart so we had passed it by a few times and we shall go in soon.

We just moved to North Reston (We're officially NOVA folks now!) and could use all the ideas and suggestions you can share with us and we will also try Tup Tim Thai... thanks and hope to hear from all of you soon.