Oriental/international groceries in St Louis

[Guest guest]

The best international grocery store I've found is Jay International, which is

on south Grand Avenue in the city of St. Louis--it's about three blocks south

from Arsenal and the southern edge of Tower Grove Park.  They started as a

Chinese-Vietnamese grocery, but have branched out considerably since.  It's a

great place to find weird specific items, such as Japanese curry mixes, which

are different from Indian curry mixes, which are different from, say, Malaysian

curry mixes.  There are flags hanging from the ceiling to give the bewildered

shopper a clue--although not all the packages indicate contents or directions in

English.  They have European foods also, for things like Hungarian paprika and

German potato dumplings and Greek honey, and a large selection of Middle Eastern

fast food mixes for falafel and hummus, and bulk quantities of rice and beans

and piles of cans of coconut milk and a whole row of teas and coffees

and.....you get the idea. 

They stock the chili and lemongrass tofu, from Joy foods in Wentzville, so I'm

not having to deal with marinating the tofu before cooking it--there's actually

some flavor to enjoy even in a hurry.  They do stock rice, soy, and almond milk,

and a wide selection of very cheap spices.

 

There is a similar store in Kirkwood, called World Foods, under the same

ownership; the prices are slightly higher, the turnover is slower, so the food

is not quite so fresh, and the amount of yuppie immigrant food is much

higher--think Indian vegetarian TV dinners.  It's a nice enough store, but I

like being the only person in the store with English as her first language.  I

have finally persuaded the people at Jay International I am not completely

insane, but there are times, like when I wanted to try to make sushi, that the

checkout ladies look at me and insist that they call one of the stock people to

find me the right rice.  At World Food, I don't think they would even glance

over the contents of my cart and say, that's not right, you need the seasoned

rice vinegar and don't even think about using that brand of rice, yes, I know it

says for sushi but I say you need the pink bag, not the blueone.   Jay's is like

family and does not hesitate to

point out that I just picked out KimChee, that Americans don't like kim chee,

that Americans don't like Korean food and kim chee is Korean, that Americans

don't even like sauerkraut and kim chee is worse....Then when I insisted on

getting it for my husband, anyway, they just shook their heads and told me to

save the receipt and bring it back for a refund.

 

My husband loved the kim chee, by the way.

 

Sue in St. Louis