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| - To all the haters below, a few things:
1.) This area of Tryon is somewhat ghetto for Charlotte, but is harmless compared to every major city in America. You're not gonna get mugged, nothing bad will happen. Honestly, people in this town FREAK OUT every time something looks a little run-down. Get a life, people.
2) The parking lot does need some improvement, but I kinda think it's fun wheeling around those potholes. NONE OF WHICH compare to some of the potholes I encountered while living in Cleveland.
3) The shelved food is old? Did you look at the expiration date? Is it anywhere close to expiring? No? Okay, then!
Honestly, I can't sing enough praises about this place. It won't be for everyone: what some people call cluttered and disorganized, I call character. What others will call a big fluorescent-lit box with innumerable varieties of food, I call your typical Chinese grocery store (yes, I know it's Vietnamese-owned).
Look: if you need cheap food, this is your place. If you need Asian food, this is DEFINITELY your place.
The staff is extremely friendly and will basically bend over backwards for you if you ask for anything. The shelves are stocked with every conceivable ingredient you could want for, whether it be of Thai, Indonesian, Philipino, Chinese, Viet, or Japanese origin. The prices are incredibly cheap: you can get produce out the ying yang for pennies on the dollar compared to a typical supermarket.
Highlights: the butcher with basically do whatever you ask with the meat you're buying. They have a ton of quality cheap cookware. But the best is the bakery/deli in the front. You can get scads of incredible Asian-y things. Boba/bubble tea of any flavor, cakes, baked buns, banh mi and finally, the crown jewel, FRESH STEAMED PORK BUNS. Also know as char siu bao. Enormous steamed buns with a ton of meaty, juicy BBQ pork inside. Hell, they could open up a shop and sell just these and I'll bet it would be magnificently successful.
So, if you haven't been here, you simply have to go. Sure it may not be your thing, but to even experience it once is an adventure that's worth the trip.
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