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| - On the search for an Asian market between me in Tempe and friends in Peoria, the Yelp Mobile App pointed me to Asiana Market.
My quest was for ground chicken, green papaya, Thai fish sauce, lemongrass, Thai basil, Thai chiles, rice noodles, lime, broccoli, green onion.
It's big...it has items from a variety of nationalities around the world...though I saw not a single person of Asian persuasion during my time in the store...not among employees or customers. Maybe my timing was off; normally, when I shop an Asian market, I am the exception being USA born.
The produce aisle did not impress me. It's kind of sad. The dirt seems to be ground in, even though the fruit and veggies being presented are all in boxes. Prices on some things (ginger root, papaya and Thai chile) are high, while other things are similar to regular grocery stores. There were some items (broccoli and greens) that seemed to be bordering on the edge of no longer fresh, while other items (lime and green onion) seem to have been harvested a little early. The basil looked OK, and it was priced comparable to other Asian markets, but there was no lemongrass. The produce person said it should come in tomorrow.
I went back to the meats, and the selection was not very good. Ground pork, a few steaks, short ribs, chicken parts (both bone in and boneless), but only 5 or 6 of each out in the refrigerator cases. I picked up a pack of boneless skinless legs and carried it to the butcher's window, asking if it could be run through a grinder to get a chili grind. 2 butchers behind the counter, nothing being processed at the moment, I figured there would be no difficulty. I was told that I would need to purchase at least 10 lbs in order to have the butcher run it through a grinder. I asked about any beef stew meat, and was told that should be in on the delivery tomorrow. As the price was a bit high and I had no need for 10 lbs, I dropped the chicken and picked up the ground pork (which was frozen).
On to the shelves, which I came to discover were stocked by nationality. Up and down the "Thai" aisle I went, where I found the rice noodles but no fish sauce. I cruised other aisles until I finally found the fish sauce from Thailand in the Korean aisle. It's been 30 minutes so far. I finished my shopping by picking up a 6-pack of Thai beer.
Headed for the registers. The first one I reached had one person in line, while the other two that were open had 5-6 people each. I got in the short line only to be advised that the register would be closing after the current customer was rung up. Off to line number 2, with 5 other people waiting to ring out. The cashier was having an issue with getting a new receipt roll loaded into the machine. I waited a minute and then moved to line 3. 6 customers in front, and the cashier was whirling like a dervish, scanning an item, putting it in the bag, scanning the next item, putting it in the bag...it took 20 minutes to get to the front of the line.
The cashier looked very young, and I hoped my suspicions that he was under 21 were incorrect. I put the beer on the belt last, and as soon as he saw it, he told me he could not handle the beer. He picked up the phone and asked for assistance on the register.
The wait began.
The cashier looked around and after about 3 minutes, picked up the phone and called for assistance again. He had everything except the beer scanned and packed in a bag. Assistance finally arrived, and the 'over 21' person scanned and bagged my beer. We completed the transaction and I picked up the bags.
I showed up on a Thursday afternoon, arriving 4:30 PM. At 5:30 PM, I pulled out of the parking lot and continued to my destination.
Maybe it was an off day...maybe my experience is the exception, not the norm. While the variety of nationality choices is significant, I have to have certain FRESH ingredients to go with the seasonings. Since
the butcher was reluctant to help, it motivates me to try other Asian grocers.
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