Shopping at an Asian Market
The
first-time visitor to an Asian market will find himself or herself in a whole
new world. You will experience brand-new sights and sounds, fascinating smells
and tastes, standards that may reach unaccustomed highs or lows, and prices that
will certainly surprise (again, high and low.)
One thing to keep in mind is that you are very welcome — here in America, the management is quite used to people of all races: members of mixed-race marriages, veterans of Asian foreign service, and people who simply love the cuisines of Asia. Besides, the most important color is the green in your pocket.
Begin your adventure at any Asian market
without trepidation, but bring a discerning eye. Here in the Washington DC area,
we are blessed with a wide variety of Asian markets, some better than others.
There are, for instance, little mom-and-pop stores where you can buy the staples
you need, and others of a similar size that seem to have nothing you need. There
are also large stores I enter with a lot of hope, and find that they stock a
wide variety of items I could use, but 
not
exactly what I need. Perhaps they're owned by Koreans or Vietnamese, and cater
mostly to those communities. That's all very well when I'm cooking bulgogi or
pho, but not so helpful when I'm cooking sushi. And there are other huge stores
which stock everything, and not one item labeled in English.
Different departments in larger Asian markets may be operated as concessions, with separate and independent vendors running the meat and seafood departments, another selling cookware and china, another operating a restaurant in the store (or two or three) and yet another selling furniture or clothing. That means, unfortunately, that your favorite store for rice and canned goods might have a meat department with substandard variety or even worse cleanliness.
Don't be afraid to ask your questions directly
to the management. The boss probably knows his business a lot better than the
help. The market I visited today was just such a case, with a very helpful,
if busy, manager, who was a lot more help than the mostly hispanic stock staff
("Mirin? Que?") If you can't find it yourself and you can't get
help, move on. Your ultimate resource may be buying on the 
Web. I have had some
luck making my first purchase of an item on the web, and then taking the package
to the store to show what I want.
However, culture runs deep, and the
differences can be confusing; I remember buying lop cheung Chinese
sausage from a market attached to a wonderful Vietnamese restaurant. I found the
sausage spoiled when I got home, and when I mentioned it to the owner, who had
always given me a friendly welcome as a regular customer, all I got from him was
a nervous grin and a giggle. I gave up after a minute of this, and was later
advised by someone that the nervous laughter was a culturally characteristic
Asian response to embarrassment. I recall deciding right then that there was no
way I was going to get what I wanted (a fresh sausage) and that I was going to
buy my sausage elsewhere from then on. By the way, as I recall, the grocery 
(with
a section of clothing) changed the next year to a clothing store (with a section
of groceries), then to a store full of clothing and appliances — same owners!
It has been said that "America's inadequate support of unpopular regimes has given the Washington area a wonderful array of ethnic restaurants." And, of course, markets. But in this great city (or the half of the area I restrict my travels to) there is only one market where I can count on finding the specialties I seek, and only one closer to home where I can count on the everyday Asian staples. You may be willing to travel farther, or be fortunate enough to have a wider variety from which to choose. But the bottom line: Go! Try! Look! Taste! You may never have been outside the borders of your home town, but when your friends see a few packages of ingredients without a word of English on them, they'll think of you as the "Indiana Jones" of the kitchen!