239906 Mon Mar 31 14:33:41 -0800 2003 13 19 Outer Boroughs 0 1272406 Driving to that 3rd Ave. Costco the other day, I noticed the new Asian emporium sort of across the street. (Not sure of exact location.) As I was in the passenger seat, I couldn't insist on stopping. Has anyone been there? Is it a department store? Grocery? Worth a visit? Mon Mar 31 14:33:41 -0800 2003 0 Amy Mintzer 1 1272410 It's a big Asian grocery. It's got a large fish section with all sorts of live fresh fish in tanks, not to mention lobster for about $8 a pound. There's a big meat section too with stuff like dried chickens and duck along with conventional fare like pork chops. The grocery has thai, chinese and other products both frozen and canned as well as a mix of products you'd find at any grocery, like goya beans and Cheerios cereal. Just to the left of the front entrance is a small area with baked goods and what looks like it will be an area for hot take-out food. Mon Mar 31 15:13:15 -0800 2003 1272406 0 sander 2 1272411 do you think it's bigger or better than other asian food grocery places in brooklyn? i've got a bil who spent a significant amount of time in s.e. asia and he's coming to town and i want to take him to the uber-asian grocery store so he can cart some staples for cooking back home (where he can't get them). Mon Mar 31 15:27:36 -0800 2003 1272410 0 sister 3 1272414 Wasn't very impressed. Wouldn't make a special trip to see it. Better you head to Brooklyn's Chinatown with its great fish markets and great (small) grocers. There really doesn't seem anything distinctive about it. It felt like a Pathmark, with more Asian products. Mon Mar 31 15:47:14 -0800 2003 1272411 0 sander 4 1272417 But cheap! Mon Mar 31 16:15:49 -0800 2003 1272414 0 rudy tudy fresh and frudy 5 1272419 And on-street parking is a lot esiaer than in Brooklyn's Chinatown. And the crab/fish tank is a sight to behold. That said there is something antiseptic (Pathmark-like as some other poster suggested) about it. By the way, upstairs there is a lot of Asian food appliances. Mon Mar 31 16:27:50 -0800 2003 1272417 0 bobjbkln 3 1272418 If you go to Brooklyn Chinatown, I really like Hong Kong Supermarket, which is huge but still has lots of personality. Mon Mar 31 16:27:29 -0800 2003 1272411 0 Amy 3 1272423 I think Hong Kong supermarket at 8th and 62nd is much larger and probably preferable for a really wide range of staples - they carry a lot of thai, filipino and vietnamese stuff in addition to Chinese, but the place at 37th and 3rd has some really different and interesting items too, some not carried by HKS. HKS is definitely the place if you only go one place. If you go on the weekend, go early. They have a parking lot, but it tends to fill up quickly. I have found parking on 62nd closer to 9th Ave. YOur friend might enjoy a Brooklyn bahn mi too. Mon Mar 31 16:33:27 -0800 2003 1272411 0 jen kalb 2 1272420 Thanks. Sounds like it's worth checking out for the fish but maybe otherwise I'll stick with Hong Kong supermarket. Mon Mar 31 16:29:54 -0800 2003 1272410 0 Amy 3 1272794 I know I'm late in this. Is HK Supermarket the one at 86th Street and 25th Avenue? I've peeked into the place by Costco and was curious, but not impressed (I was waiting for someone and couldn't let myself go in). But the one (sorry, I forget the name) at 25th adn 86th was huge and included many items I had never seen in Chinatown- not that I know what any of them are, I had come to recognize labels. If you have the inclination, I'd go to that one. Thu Apr 10 08:38:12 -0700 2003 1272420 0 cypressstylepie 1 1272815 Awwww, all this talk about "character." Okay, The Honk Kong Supermarket on 8th Avenue at 62nd Street (just across the street from the N Train 8th Avenue station) is the single greatest place on earth. It's got dried whelks, it's got Ribena and Horlick's, it's got glutenous rice flour, it's got character up the wazoo. It's pan-Asian -- Honk Kong, Taiwanese, Thai, Vietnamese, Japanese, Singapore, and like 17 different "Chinese" -- and even includes some quirky Anglo and Franco treats for the victims of European colonialism. Plus Kellogg's cereals for the victims of American colonialism. Great place. Just plain swell. And it's in Chinatown. The new place across from Costco is, well, across from Costco -- under the expressway on 3rd Ave near I guess 37th Street, a block up from the Beer Outlet. I think it's fair to say the place is the Asian cousin of those two establishments -- very very tidy, chock full of brand name asian products, a good selection of produce if you aren't game for hunting all of 8th Ave. for the BEST of everything, quite inexpensive. The Fish Tanks are this huge network of multilevel tanks about twelve feet high. Water cascades from up top into the lower tanks in a series of waterfalls. Just big plexiglass tanks; no dragons or gargoyles, no Disney. The fish looked fine, but I bet they all have headaches from the waterfalls. I imagine little kids would love The Fish Tanks. I admit I was captivated. The place has a pegboard loaded with dozens of Asian boullion cubes, for pho and so on, dozens of flavors -- so tidy and handy, I was almost embarrassed to see all the work that went into the display. You got yer Mr. Brown's canned ice coffee, with his beard, his straw hat, his cup of joe and his happy wild-eyed smile. Next to him, you got yer "Hello, Boss" brand of canned ice coffee in like five varieties -- a brand not quite as subtle as Mr. Brown, but the logo character wears the same beard, straw hat, cup of joe and wild-eyed smile. What's up with that? ( I did a taste test of all five. Mr. Brown wins, handsdown, but I did nevertheless arrive at work with a happy, wild-eyed "Hello, BOSS!" for everyone I passed. ) The new place DOES sell exotic appliances and housewares upstairs, which was fun to explore. Don't miss the little steamtable restaurant and bakery -- where I found nothing astounding, but everything tasty. BUT NOW HERE'S THE KICKER: the staff speaks pretty good English, and the senior woman whom I assume was the manager is INCREDIBLY helpful! I have never seen such jolly, helpful, concerned attention from any counterperson in New York City, ever. Not even in Bay Ridge. Without ever interrupting the peace of my supermarket safari, the fine woman was always available to explain the products to me, suggest appropriate accompaniments, even help pick out produce! So HK rules supreme, absolutely. Still, if you want to shop a good Asian supermarket, prefer your supermarkets tidy, and feel a bit weak in your Asian scholarship, the new place is a fun starter course. Thu Apr 10 13:35:04 -0700 2003 1272406 0 Clams247 2 1272818 Id only like to comment that this operation is far from a complete Chinese grocery story - for example no peanut oil! Relatively limited range of refrigerated goods, like bean curd, fresh noodles, turnip cake, etc, relatively limited produce. They just dont have the patronage to support much in the way of perishable items yet, methinks. Think of it as a place to find interesting packaged goods,frozen items and asian snacks/drinks you have never heard of before and you will do ok. Thu Apr 10 13:55:55 -0700 2003 1272815 0 jen kalb 3 1272868 And Asian snack/drinks would include CALPICO. OH MY GOD do I love this stuff!!!! It's this bizarre liquid soft drink mix -- a syrup consisting mostly of (formerly) dry milk powder. The instructions recommend you mix it with water or, for grumpy little kids, with milk. I mix it with club soda and drink it super, super cold. I'm thinking of mixing it with shaved ice, to make a sort egg cream -- it gets frothy a lot like an egg cream. The club soda adds a slight citrus tang, yet it doesn't curdle as milk would. So--ahooooh!--refreshing! (I bet it mixes with gin, too, btw.) I'm just gonna lie around in the heat all summer drinking Calpico from the 3rd Avenue store and Ribena from Hong Kong Supermarket. Calpico is apparently not related to Tampico, and let's be glad for that. Fri Apr 11 14:40:26 -0700 2003 1272818 0 Clams247 2 1272912 Uh, I have to backpedal a little. We reuturned to the Asian supermarket across from Costco today, and it was completely different! Then again, today was SATURDAY-- did the day of the week affect the stock and the style of the place so? The steamtrays at the little lunchcounter were almost empty, and quite sad. The upper fishtanks had been dismantled! For repair, or permanently, i do not know. No cascades of water, and just some tchulupaia or whoever you spell it -- and some carp and catfish in little side tanks. All the "Hello, Boss" iced coffee was gone. One little "Mr. Brown's" and a Vietnamese canned ice coffee that had no smiling, straw-hatted guy with a beard whatsoever. The Vietnamese soup-boullion peg rack had moved to the end of an aisle, where it remains spectacular. Many of the shelves were empty. The upstairs was closed; the housewares and Buddhist iconic statuary were downstairs. The staff, although still very pleasant, seemed distant and less delighted. And I could find no more Calpico. A Japanese friend, when I descriped Calpico, said it sounded like a Japanese softdrink Calpis re-marketed for American or Mexicans. "Calpis" sounds an awful lot like "cow piss," and Americans just won't drink something milky called "Cow Piss." (Well... maybe certain really adventurous chowhounds would. And that's why I love you guys.) In short: my most recent visit to the Asian supermarket near Costco was relatively somewhat bleek. I hope it's not indicative of hardship for the staff and owners, because I think the place is great. Sun Apr 13 03:06:25 -0700 2003 1272815 0 Clams247