Oddly, the place I lived with the best ethnic grocery stores was Bloomington, IN. IU is a research one university, so the international student population is huge. Bloomington even has 4 Tibetan restaurants. Who knew such a small town would have such great food?

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I admit, I'm utterly spoiled when it comes to ethnic groceries - Chicago has an enormous number of them, from corner bodegas and fruterias to Devon Avenue's International Marketplace, filled with Indo-Pak groceries, East European and kosher markets. Peterson and Lincoln sport a range of Korean markets and restaurants...that's just a sampling. It would take months to get around to visiting them all. And yes - we also have a splendid Mitsuwa Marketplace in nearby Algonquin Heights!

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In Ann Arbor and Lansing, MI, we've got a few Chinese and Korean markets--enough to get the basics. And some really good kim chi. I think there are also other ethnic markets, like Indian or Middle-Eastern.

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Here in Minneapolis we've got ethnic markets galore. I live on a street dubbed "Eat Street" that has tons of ethnic groceries and restaurants. They are mostly Asian, some Latino, and a few Middle Eastern and African. Perpendicular to that street is Lake Street which has tons of Latino, East African, and Asian groceries and restaurants.

Basically, you can get anything you need in terms of speciality foods and cookware along these two streets. Plus a tasty dinner.

It is a beautiful thing, and all in walking distance from my house.

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In Sacramento, California, we have a few wonderful Mexican groceries which have those wonderful bakery sections displaying large, lard-filled rainbow colored cookies that melt in your mouth, as well as freshly grilled street-style tacos and carnitas. There are a number of large Asian markets, and also my favorite ... Oto's Japanese Market, on Freeport, across from the Executive Airport. Quail Eggs, Pocky Sticks, every kind of noodle known to man, and if you dig rice crackers, they have hundreds of varieties. The best place for "brown bag lunch ingredients." It isn't a large store, but it is jam packed. I understand they'll be expanding. I've been meaning to get to some of the Middle Eastern markets, but have not done so, yet.

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Don't forget the wonderful Mexican grocery stores in the Lansing area.

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I live near Cincinnati so we have Jungle Jim's, which is an enormous international foods market - not specializing in any one area, but with huge offerings from all over the world. Great!

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Thai Binh pictured is a great place, it is about the same size as most other supermarkets in the area. I live about two hours and 15 minutes from Wichita now, the owner of one of the ethnic food stores here( Manhattan, KS) actually goes to Wichita every tuesday to go to Thai Binh. There are some really nice Mexican grocery stores in wichita, as well as a few Indian. Here in manhattan we have a Korean, A general ethnic food store, asian/Indian/Mexican. We also have one other Indian food store.

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Here in the San Francisco Bay Area, we've an embarrassment of ethnic grocery riches; one can find pretty much anything Asian (including Cambodian, Vietnamese, Japanese, Korean and Filipino), Indian, Persian, Afghani, Mexican, Italian (particularly in the City) Russian, Portuguese, Greek, and Ethiopian. Eastern Europe (Russia excepted) is less represented, and we've precious few kosher establishments.

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Dallas TX and the surrounding suburbs are great for ethnic grocery stores. Within 2 miles of where I live, there are at least 2 Indian groceries, 1 Vietnamese grocery, and a couple carnicerias.

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I usually seek out Korean stores. I like cooking preparing Korean dishes. But to make it taste like
the real thing, you have to get your ingredients from Korean stores. It just won't work with substitutes.
You really have to get it from Koreans...and follow the recipes as is.

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