As advertised

Today the new Asian supermarket I've mentioned a time or two before, opened in the building that once housed my favorite grocery store. I went over to take a peek this afternoon and it is what they said it is. It's definitely not a hole-in-the-wall specialty shop, but a full blown supermarket. Lots of imported products from many parts of Asia east of Pakistan. It isn't entirely Asian but it is mostly non-local products; a few imports from South America and some staples from North America but fewer than I expected, not much European except for liquor and an aisle of Dutch products (for Indonesians longing for the old days?). I saw nothing from the Middle East, but there is a small Middle Eastern grocery store, not so far away from here in suburban terms already. They have a beautiful array of produce, a huge fresh fish section and a large frozen fish section. Need a salmon head to flavor your soup? They have it out front. Need whole frozen calamari? They have it. There is an entire aisle devoted to tea which wasn't a big surprise. I don't remember seeing any coffee, but there could be some with the South American products. There is certainly more food in store now that it's not an American-style supermarket.

They have a big section of cooking ware, steamers, rice keepers and so on. I'm not sure I'd trust the metal ware since I didn't see any country of origin or brand marks. If there is any lead or other nastiness in the coatings, I doubt washing it half a dozen times would get rid of it.

There were quite a few Asian customers there of many national origins, probably two-thirds of the considerable crowd. It was very interesting to me to hear a different language in every aisle.

My knowledge of Asian cuisines is mostly limited to what I've seen on PBS, but when the crowd dies down in a few days, I'll probably be back to buy a few things.