Rare food items for Southeast Asian cooking!…read more This market is one of my favorites in Philadelphia. It's not as large as the Sino-Vietnamese markets on Washington Ave, but it has some very specialized inventory for mainland Southeast Asia cooking (Thai/Lao/Cambodian/Vietnamese). I've been going there for about 5 years, and it's a regular stop on grocery shopping trips. If you've ever traveled to mainland Southeast Asia, you'll know that fresh herbs are very important in making or breaking a dish. Seng Hong's well-stocked herb selection in the refrigerator is a particular strength. At any given time they have around 10 different herbs available. The freezer section is exotic. Lots of interesting new imports from Thailand there, including "sour fish" and lightly fermented gouramy . There are frozen yanang leaves and frozen sour flesh of the krasang fruit for making funky Cambodian dips. They now sell Isaan sausages (Northeastern Thai sour pork sausages), alongside Chinese and Cambodian sausages. This is where we usually get our green papayas and ingredients for papaya salads, and there are new product lines of jarred dips and sauces in a pretty steady stream from Thailand. They also have a pretty good selection of Southeast Asian cooking implements (rice steamers, mortars and pestles). The staff are very helpful. One clerk speaks Thai and Lao in addition to Khmer, and the owner's English is good.

Ok, so I have a old Volvo with ~250,000 mile on it. It has this thing where it just dies and if…read moreyou wait 1 or 2 minutes with the ignition off it starts right back up. So today I was driving up Broad Street north of the Boulevard, south of the SEPTA regional rail overpass. Inga (my wife named her; since College I have named all my cars posie for Piece of S***IE) started to buck... Anyway Inga takes a herring break at Broad and just south of Rockland, so using momentum I made a right onto Rockland heading east. I slid into a spot and waited a few moments and then turned the key. Inga says ya, shure, and we are off turning left to go north on Old York Rd. On the northwest corner of Old York and Rockland there is a place with Sanscripty Thai ish script and English translation like ciigroceryanddeli just like that no spaces - they did not speak much English and they did not seem to have much I wanted to buy, but as I exited I saw across the street Seng Hong. What the heck I thought in for (insert your favorite phrase here - mad libs comes to Yelp - ya saw it here first, folks). Seng Hong is like the places that I would explore in NYC Chinatown as a kid in the 60's - the parents would L-I-N-G-E-R over lunch or dinner and 8 YO me would get excused and explore. Times sure have changed! One is curious how 'modern' kids and young adults function sans smart phone or even develop street smarts, but I digress... My MIL wanted gold haut 70's gold colored silverware for Xmas and I thought what the heck. They do have loads of oriental cooking stuff and various tschotskes as well as many different kinds of foods most unknown to me but not gold silverware. This is a place that folks who know about Oriental foods will likely enjoy exploring, and if you live in the Jenkintown - Cheltenham area like me like me it's closer then Chinatown, and less corporate then the admittedly excellent H Mart at Cheltenham and 611 at the Philly line. They have the requisite Hispanic guy assisting the middle aged woman who seems to run the place. If you want to check out a cool place and choose from Viet Namese, Chinese, and Thai stuff (to my untrained eye) this is a very cool place. My (as of this writing) 5 YO niece and her 3 YO brother love eating with chop sticks, but their dad is not a big Oriental food fan, so I bought a set of 6 plastic chop sticks, a pinkish red plastic plate with a pretty rose on it the niece, a blue plastic plate with a strong masculine design on it for the nephew, and a medium size serving plate with Chinese characters on it (eat at Liu's?) and 2 packages of ichi ban ramen for $13.26. The lady even let me use my MAC despite the bill being under 15 bucks... Here is a photo from Google Street View - it looked safe enough but late at night I don't know...http://goo.gl/maps/8Wfnv

Best source in the city for phylo dough. Never once, in over 20 years, had a problem of the sheets…read moresticking together. Best feta, hummus, olive oil, olives, Turkish coffee, and desserts!

Very good chicken schwarma. The chicken was perhaps a little bit dry/crumbly. But the pita was…read morefresh, the vegetables were plentiful and fresh. And overall this was a good wrap and a good value

I used to come here years ago and it wasn't bad at all. The prices were good…read more Parking lot is still pretty busy. You can't take a shopping cart inside or outside of the market because they have a holes so you only can just stop at the polls and that's it. I'm not even sure if they have a space for someone to get in that has a wheelchair. It appears that the store I don't know if it was purchased by someone else or they just did a update of the store it's very bright and noisy. The new thing that they have that I do not like is that if you bring your own bags and basket, you have to check it in with security upon entering the store, they will chase you down if you walk by without checking it in as if you know that that's what you're supposed to do. They take your things and they give you a clothes pin with a number on it it, and when checking out, you give it to the cashier and they call over to the security people and they bring your basket and bags over to you. They also have security guards that look like they're armed so I'm not sure why they have all of this extra stuff around and they do have cameras. What I noticed is the prices have gone up tremendously compared it to other markets and they are at least 2 to 3 dollars higher on some things that's crazy. A 12 pack of soda is $12.99. I'm sure it has the sugar tax on it since it's in the City Of Philadelphia but that is a bit much. I was very disappointed and how the prices have gone up. I do come here because they do have a lot of international items that you may not find at the regular supermarket, but I'm gonna have to try to find somewhere else because this is just so not acceptable.

Place to go for hard to find cultural foods BUT it comes with awkward rules. They made my 89yo…read moremother leave her shopping cart at the "bag check in" A purple see through cart! And who checks in bags at supermarkets I've never done that before . My bigger question - Is it wheelchair accessible? you can't get the shopping cart out of the gates.

I know that when rating a place that Yelp doesn't yet have a page for, I tend to give it five…read morestars. These places are unknown to the majority of Yelpers and I want people to know about some of my favourite shops and restaurants, hence, Chai Hong Market gets a five-star rating, especially because for such a small space, they are VERY well stocked. Chai Hong sells Asian groceries with a concentration on Southeast Asian (Cambodian in particular). The owner, a woman with plucked eyebrows who watches Thai movies, is at the register every time I go. She may come across as a little unpleasant at first, but she's really helpful anyway. After shopping here for several years, she's become my shop buddy, even though neither of us know the others' name. We speak in a pidginmix of Thai, French and English, but she's got good mastery of each of them (it's me, being that I'm not a native speaker of any of those three that has a problem with communicating). Anyway, the store. Chai Hong has some great quality groceries at great prices! She's seemingly the only place I can find both gkaprao and horap'ha, two varieties of basil used in Thai cuisine. There's a huge variety of various coconut milks and creams, some Southeast Asian candies (they've got ting ting jahe, a ginger-chew I loved in childhood), more tinned sauces and pastes than you can shake a stick at and cooking utensils and that's just one little aisle. Sadly, they don't carry Sealect Tuna, my very favourite brand of tuna. The produce is cheap and of good quality and you can find porkbelly (skin still on) in the fridge in the back for about a buck or two a pound (I forget). I buy a couple pounds of it and cure-then-smoke homemade bacon with it and use the freshly smoked skin to make black-eyed peas, black beans or collards. The owner makes the all-important lemongrass paste that is the basis of just about every Cambodian stew, soup or curry, kroeung, and sells it in little containers for $4. One container can make about a gallon of curry, so it's not that bad a price at all. She also sells her homemade sweet pickles. I don't much like them, to be honest, but others rave about them. Chai Hong Market often carries keffir lime saplings by the window facing 7th street and carries kaki (just looked it up; they're called 'persimmons' in English) real cheap when they're in season. The longan she carries when in season are sweet, juicy and tasty. I remember sharing some on a bus ride up 7th street from here up to South with a nice and adventurous Southern lady (I think she was from the Carolinas some where). On the way out, you can pick up a pineapple stick (I often do in the summer) and put seasoning on it and eat it on your way back home. I'm hoping more people will frequent this diamond in the rough, as well as the other businesses in the area. One caveat: the aisles might be a little narrow for larger people, but I can get through just fine. Cutting back on ham and walking more is definitely worth it if only to navigate Chai Hong market effectively.

I happened to be in the neighborhood for some of the much talked about Khmer style noodle soup. On…read moremy way back to my car, I poked my head into this hole in the wall. I was instantly blown away by the diverse selection of south east Asian fruits, vegetables and herbs. The woman at the counter initially seemed aloof to me, but quickly warmed up and answered the many questions I had. I ended up making several purchases on some hard to find perishables. Great selection, great prices and great help. I will definitely go back.

Food was very good and the price for a plate was not bad and served a lots on your plate…read more Flavor of all the fishes was perfect

This is a nice small store that doesnt have any signs or anything outside. you can notice that its…read moreindonesian because of the signs and products in the window. its a small red-ish brick building, they also have a wide variety of indonesian products such as sambal, abc and indomie. the owners are an older couple from surabaya and are always smiling. they do have a large selection of goods packed into a tight spot. it is run by a husband and wife eastern java. takes cash only.

This market stocks a lot of rare ingredients!…read more Friendly Market specializes in foods and ingredients catering to relatively recent South and Southeast Asian refugee arrivals to South Philadelphia. These groups include Bhutanese, Nepali, Chin and Karen peoples, and much of the products come from Thailand, Myanmar, Nepal, and India. Every time I go in to Friendly Market I come away with at least one new ingredient or condiment that opens my eyes to a new culinary horizon. The shop owners Julio and Sovannary are always happy to talk about how their very specialized stock of ingredients can be used, and I always learn good things about Burmese and Nepali food when chatting with them. They have recently acquired some cookbooks to have on hand to help shoppers get a sense of how some of these exotic ingredients come together in Nepali and Burmese dishes (ask to take a look at them-they're behind the counter).

This place has a buffet with American style food and Chinese/American style food…read more The food is meh. Definitely forgetable save one single element that gives this review all of it's stars. BUGLES! I wasn't even aware they still made these, but they do, and they are sold at JK Gourmet. I wore every single one on a finger tip before i ate them.

Had the 2-layer magic cake or flan, with one layer of chocolate cake and one of flan. It was moist…read moreand both sides were tasty, without being overly sweet. Prices were reasonable - $5 for a piece that would feed 2. They also had the typical range of colorful baked breads, cookies, pastries you'd expect to find in a Latin bakery. I did not try any, but they looked good. The salesperson was very patient with all my questions... I can never tell what's what at this kind of bakery. What has a filling? What is sweet vs savory? Selection was a bit limited compared to some places I've been, but I arrived very late in the day and it looks like much may have been sold out. I'm giving 5/5 for quality over quantity. Would happily go back for dessert after an Italian market dinner.

Great neighborhood store with a wide variety of grocery and beverage items, with a whole wall of…read moredelicious fresh-baked goods in the back. Lots of Mexican specialties that you won't find elsewhere, such as Jarritos sodas. Very reasonable prices; super-friendly and helpful staff.