Shopping for Groceries part 2

Have I mentioned how much I love shopping for groceries? Well, I’ll mention it again. I LOVE it! Even if it’s at sketchy places that have boxes strewn everywhere or Chaotic markets with pushy Chinese people (sorry, but they are particularly at this store) and I guess I like grocery shopping in high end grocery giants like Whole Foods, Meinhardt and Capers like anyone else, but that is often a luxury I cannot afford. As I have mentioned in my previous post Where to Shop for Groceries in Vancouver, places like these: the busy markets, and ones with open boxes strewn everywhere and honest fruits and vegetables that speak for themselves, is what makes food stand out for me and not sitting high and gleaming on a well showcased shelf. The places that I mentioned are generally the cheapest, I think due to the location (East End) but most probably, the high turn around rate of the produce as these places are very popular. It’s especially gratifying and a little funny to see, when you spot a few famous local chefs shopping at Sunrise as well. I suppose it’s in the Chef’s best interest to get produce as cheap and fresh as possible so that they can make a larger profit when these inexpensive meat, fish, fruit and vegetables get transformed to something remarkable on a plate with a $30 price tag.

Whilst shopping for the final round of groceries for the Co.ERASGA – Shadow Machine Gala, I went to a little area near China Town at the intersection of Gore and Powell to Rice World, Sunrise Markets and Kay’s Seafood LTD. These three stores could probably successfully feed me for the duration of my entire life, as they pretty much have anything and everything at the best possible price. Yes, these stores are in the East end, and Yes Vancouver’s East end isn’t the nicest thing for your eyes, but regardless of the location and despite the unfortunate number of homeless people, this is the place to be for food central.

The best thing about these places is that they have a “no bullshit” attitude. Because they don’t try to dress it up, (and believe me they don’t) the products speak for themselves. The quality of vegetables can be distinguished with your eyes, and if there’s grapes, mandarin oranges, cherry tomatoes or anything small that you’d like to purchase, you can have a taste of one grape or one cherry tomato and no one cares. This is the way grocery shopping should be. Whenever I shop in Save On Foods, or Safeway (or Metro or Sobey’s in Toronto), I can feel the eyes that look at me as I pick a grape off the stem and taste one or when I peel open one mandarin orange from a box to see if it even tastes good. Usually I buy them regardless because I can see people look at me in disapproval, but why can’t I taste one miniscule amount of the bulk amount I am purchasing? I know some people find it a little uncomfortable to do that, and I admit I was always embarrassed when my mother did it when I was younger, but I now understand why you’d do it. You need to make sure what you’re getting is quality, and the only way to do that with food, is taste it. With electronics, you read all the stats and get a warranty, but well …grapes are grapes and oranges are oranges so what’re ya gunna do ‘bout it? I don’t mean go have a buffet by tasting one thing after another, and I don’t mean open up a package and taste it, but if it’s readily available to taste, and if it’s as volatile an ingredient as grapes, clementines, mandarin oranges, olives at an olive bar, meat from the deli, and even cheese from the deli, you should be able to taste a little to see if you even like it before you buy a few pounds of it, no?

Do                                              Don’t

Anyway, this time I went shopping I had my trusty camera with me, (which soon ran out of battery so I resorted to my cell phone) and I snapped a few pictures of the places I was recommending you to go to and a couple more I’ve discovered on this trip. So here are the pictures of Rice World, Sunrise Markets, Kay’s Seafood LTD. (the place with fresh Japanese style Fish cakes made in store!), and another store I stumbled upon that I found very exciting, is called Zin Fai Enterprises at 325 Powell Street!

Rice World

126 Gore Ave.

I described this place at length in the Where to Shop for Groceries in Vancouver post so I won’t do it again here, but I will only remind you of the “menu” board I mentioned and the pick up window where you have to order the rice. Did I mention that there’s free parking?

Deli style Rice Ordering list, with the little window where you order from to get your slip of paper. Good luck!

This place is a sea of boxes where you will find mystery ingredients, a lot of different kinds of sauces, noodles, snacks, slippers, sugar, anything! Just look in the box! I got cans of coconut milk for $1 each, a 2kg bag of sugar for $2.80! So cheap!

 

Cotton Swabs                                                                          Boxes and Boxes of stuff

Dried Bean Curd Wrapper                                                 I told you there would be slippers!!! ($2.50)

  

Vinegar, Black Bean sauce, Chinese Wine Vinegar, Tapioca Starch, Green bean powder, Rice flour… They also have another room off to the side full of dried beans, dried shitake mushrooms, and every other dried thing you can imagine!

Kay’s Seafood LTD.

338 Powell Street, Vancouver

Do you remember when I said that my mother goes straight to the source for fresh, in house made, fish cakes? I didn’t know the name of the place, and was glad I ventured over there  because I finally found out the name of the place!

So these are Japanese Surimi , Kamaboko, Satsuma Age style fish cakes. They’re normally made with a fish puree that are formed into these fish cakes which have been made for centuries by the Japanese. Pollock or Whiting fish are normally used in North America because they are very mildly flavoured white meat fish that pair very well with any combination of flavours. They add different vegetables, seasonings and spices to make each one different.

You can get them in bulk at Fujiya on Clark street as well, but they probably get them from a distributer (possibly even here!). Kay’s Seafood distributes their products all over the Lower Mainland to almost all the Korean Groceries and markets. So what’s the difference between getting them here, and at Han-Nam Mart? Well, they’re usually frozen in Han-Nam Mart and the same with any other Korean Grocery store which definitely changes the taste and texture of them, and they’re also more expensive everywhere else. Whenever I used to get them at a grocery store, I could distinctly taste some freezer burn. At Kay’s they’re fresh, chewy, and you can taste the vegetables in there in a clean, flavourful, almost sweet fish cake. I might also like them even more because we share the same first syllable in our names.

My favourite kind are the ones with green bean and red pepper as they’re slightly spicy, have a great texture, savoury and delicious!

Since they’re so fresh, I ate a few as you would chips in the car on the way home. You can totally just eat them by itself cold, or heat them up with a little soy sauce, make dashi broth and put a lot of different kinds of fish cakes in there for oden hot pot, make yourself some Udon noodle soup, or put them in ramen with these guys sliced up. SO GOOD!

Zin Fai Enterprises

I was drawn in by the bamboo steamers towards the front of the store (10” bamboo steamers: $3 each, I got two), but once I went in further, the store had an array of so many different types of kitchen equipment and kitchen ware, that it kind of blew my mind! I’m pretty sure a lot of restaurants order their kitchen supplies from this place as I recognized a lot of plates, cups and bowls here that I’ve seen at various restaurants in Vancouver.

Yeah, I’m sure they’re not the best quality out there to rival William and Sonoma, but their whisk and ladle have a great weight to it. They didn’t feel flimsy and lightweight like the ones at a Dollar Store, but the great thing is, is that they are cheap like the Dollar store! If ever you need a new colander, strainer, ladle, spatula, double boiler (how often do you really use one anyway?) or anything else kitchen related, just get an inexpensive one from here for whenever you need it!

Famous Foods

1595 Kingsway

I didn’t go there today, and went the day before, but I thought I would mention the number of spices they have available in the store! WOW, a lot of these spices and herbs I didn’t even know! If you’re into naturopathy or resort to herbal medicine…this is the place to find all those weird herbs that you’ve never heard of!

They had St. John’s Wort, Cat Nip, Lavender, Echinacea, Horsetail, American Hops, Sassafras, Neen, Hisshop, Mullein, Mistletoe, Motherwort….the list goes on and on…

This list is just as extensive as the herbs for spices: Ajwain seeds, Garam Masala, Black mustard seeds, Asafetida, cayenne, Cumin seeds, coriander seeds, Oregano, Mint, Basil….ahh! (a little scream of excitement)

Okay, where was I… Oh right!

Sunrise Markets

300 Powell Street (@ Gore)

Fresh produce outside, in the aisles, inside and on the other side of the building. Fresh produce everywhere! They also have damaged or older fruits on special in bags for like..50 cents or a dollar!

Every kind of Tofu product imaginable, Sunrise Market is where Sunrise Tofu all started, where they made Tofu at the back of the store. This company has grown exponentially since then, and they still have the best price for tofu! $1.79 for a box of tofu?! Its almost $3 for the same product everywhere else!

Imagine this entire kiosk thing filled all around with tofu: Fried tofu, extra firm tofu, medium firm, soft, organic, tempeh, silken tofu, tofu puffs, dessert tofu, soy milk, and repeat the list for organic tofu…any product with soy in it, they got it. They also have 2 for $1 deals on a lot of their stuff!

Remember what I said about the meats at the back of the store? And, you know how I said it was smelly? It wasn’t when I went this time! I guess they cleaned it and freshened with Febreeze since what I remember, because I didn’t really smell anything!

They also have every kind of dumpling wrapper you need. ShangHai style, wonton wrappers, egg roll wrappers, they have rice rolls… I got 3 packages of the ShangHai style Dumpling wrappers (vegan… well… it says “may contains traces of egg” in the list of ingredients, so vegetarian at least) for $1.99. These same dumpling wrappers are $3.50 in Save on Foods!

Funny story: at the check out, an employee carts over boxes and boxes of fresh mangos from Australia for $1 each. These were giant mothers of mangos the size of two fists put together, as they had perfectly orangey yellow flesh with a spot of red… people went crazy for these! When I got two of them and was waiting at the cash with my other purchases, people asked where they could find them so I pointed right beside me and said, “ only one dollar!” and they exclaimed, “only ONE Dolla?!” and they proceeded to grab them by the handful. I’m serious, there were swarms of the people by the time my turn came up at the checkout, and the guy that brought them out didn’t even have time to take them out of the boxes!

My cats are happy I’m home. (for the record, I don’t normally use plastic bags, but already used up all the cloth bags I had this time around)