For me to review the Asian Supermarket relative to other Asian markets would be as if I were to try to mansplain feminism. I mean, I like this place, it's got an amazing variety of packaged goods most especially from China (for Indian stuff, try Parivar up the street), and enough fresh vegetables I couldn't identify that I suppose it's authentic, plus live crabs. I consider myself a supporter and a fellow traveler but I can't really objectively rate it because I am not living it. I can't really truly appreciate it for better or worse because I am a shallow dilettante when it comes to Asian cooking, and it took me over a half hour to find the dried black beans I came for, during which I put in a dozen items, only half of which I could really identify. (My favorite was the "Indispensible Condiment." Does that mean I can't do without it, or I can't dispense it? We'll find out!)
What I will give this four stars for is the cultural experience, because I haven't found another place in Albany or the entire CRUST where I've felt so much like I was a visitor on a sort of exotic trip. (Yes, I am the kind of person when he goes abroad, goes to the grocery stores and such, to get immersed.) There's a modicum of English labeling, but who knows what it really says? Today I couldn't find a single employee who spoke English, and I obviously said 'Niihau' with the wrong intonation because I got looked at like the gringo that I am. (I finally got directed around the store by asking the delivery man, who spoke only Spanish, like a real American.) There was another shopper who became my good samaritan and helped me find my dried black beans finally, although she said I had been asking for "old dark shoes" earlier. So much for Rosetta Stone, eh?
In any event, I strongly urge you to bring your kids here and have them try to get a treasure hunt list of ten items or so, it would be a great way of learning what it's like to be an immigrant and have to navigate for the basic needs in life without knowing the language, the customs, or even what the basic food ingredients are. I'm completely serious. The CRUST doesn't have enough real ethnic enclaves to serve this purpose, so you have to take these experiences where you can find them. Maybe that *is* like a feminism mansplainer, in that I'm being an annoying tourist in my own town here, but as long as I keep coming back and spending my money on bags of Indispensible Condiment I'm pretty sure the owners won't mind. read more