After much cajoling, she finally relented and allowed me to enter the store on St. John Street in Portland. Stepping across the threshold was like entering an exotic land. The air was filled with the sounds of various Asian dialects, spoken by the half dozen shoppers filling the market, and the aisles were crammed with imported products.
No one in the shop spoke English, so I foraged on my own. The produce selection was quite good and featured things like fresh mint leaves, watercress and broccoli. Organic enoki mushrooms sold for $3.99 a pack and 4 plump, unblemished limes could be had for $1.
Near the back of the store, I puzzled over a large spiky fruit the size of a football. Once back at my desk, a Google search revealed that the fruit is called a durian. While apparently quite popular in Southeast Asia, Wikipedia had this to say about the distinctive durian smell: “The unusual odour has prompted many people to search for an accurate description. Comparisons have been made with the civet, sewage, stale vomit, skunk spray, and used surgical swabs.”
Not exactly appetizing.
I also was puzzled by munchies like flavored squid (basically a dried and flattened squid) and shrimp snacks (a shrimp-infused chip). Much more appetizing (at least to Western taste buds) were the prepared foods at the front of the store, like fresh spring rolls, steamed buns and, oddly, Italian sandwiches.
A block away on Congress Street is the Hong Kong Market. This place is the supermarket of the local Asian grocery store scene.
Inside, the aisles are wide and grocery carts are stacked by the front door. A hand-written sign urges shoppers to order ahead for the limited selection of roasted ducks and pigs, available only on Sundays.
The Hong Kong Market offers an awesome selection of soy sauce, sweet chili sauce, noodles, spring roll wrappers and frozen fish. Look closely and you’ll find tons of interesting items to spice up your food like ...
Banana sauce: Selling for 85 cents in a catsup-type bottle, the red sauce is manufactured by Heinz in the Philippines and lists bananas as the third ingredient.
Or fresh quail eggs: They sell for $3.95 for two dozen and look like chocolate Easter candies. (The clerk told me her kids love them boiled with a little salt.)
Frank Tsui, who manages the Hong Kong Market, said the store stocks the “dried goods and canned goods most of the Oriental people use for cooking. But it’s not just Oriental people. American people use them too. We’re getting more people from far away, even from Bangor. They save a trip to Boston and the price is good too.”
Further up Congress Street is La Bodega Latina Grocery Store. Here familiar American brands like Dole and Kraft mingle with south-of-the-border staples, such as Goya and Malher. The store stocks a decent selection of hot sauces and a typical convenience store offering of beer.
Much further up Congress Street, near Longfellow Square, you can find Bodega “El Caribe.” This small market carries essentials from Latin American mixed with a few American favorites, like Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.
“We always have fruits — papayas and mangos, but then we have mac and cheese and Pepsi,” said Jose Roman, whose parents own the store. On the weekends, his mother, Luz Carpenter, whips up prepared foods, including empanadas.
The store stocks a variety of corn flours used to make tortillas. And you can pick up a wooden mortar and pestle for $10.99. High above the checkout, a giant mortar and pestle adds Latin ambiance to the store. This pottery piece comes with it’s own story of cultural barriers.
“We brought it over from the Dominican Republic,” Roman said. “And we had a hard time getting it through customs.”
It seems the agents thought the pestle resembled a weapon. Sounds like the start to a killer meal.