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.

Avoid this place. They stopped carrying fresh items. My family and I used to shop all the way back…read morein the 80s but they now sell expired items.

I've literally been coming here since I was a kid and the owner still remembers my name and always…read moreasks how I'm doing whenever I pop in to get a cheap drink or a snack. They do sell Chinese groceries, but since coming here, I've only gotten their drinks (like water, Arizona's, Gatorade, Asian drinks), ice creams (like you'd get from an old school ice cream truck), and snacks (American and Asian). I always come back because of how cheap everything is and I just love supporting local businesses that don't thrive off of being a big chain because they work hard at what they do and they do a great job at it as well! If you every want to just get some cheap drinks and snacks (snacks under or about $1 and drinks under $1.50) then stop by this little corner store in Chinatown! ***Note: They only take cash here!

Another indonesian shop, has great meatballs and all kinds of groceries, similar to the other…read morestores in the area. this is pretty new and has maybe only been open since january. noodles, sauces, treats, rice, stuff like that.

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

I gave OK Lee's Produce a try through Too Good To Go, and it was definitely worth it. For just…read morearound $6, I got a huge variety: 5 bunches of cilantro, 8 oranges (half blood orange), 4 limes, 2 mangos, a cabbage, a basket of cherry tomatoes, 8 roma tomatoes, a bell pepper, and a bag of sweet chili peppers. Some items had a bit of mold and needed trimming, but honestly, for the price, it was still a steal. I also took a walk through the store itself, and everything on display looked fresh and well-stocked -- clearly, the regular shoppers get high-quality produce. The owner was super kind, even let me pick out my own bag, and the whole customer service experience felt very relaxed and friendly. For a spot inside the busy Reading Terminal Market, OK Lee's really holds it down. It's super clean and well organized. It's officially my new go-to for weekly groceries.

Loved how neat and clean this little stall was at the Reading terminal. All was a fruit was nicely…read moreorganized and I peeped that they had watermelon which is my favorite. The clerk assured me that it was sweet for the season although the watermelon is not in season. I will say the watermelon was semi sweet and very good for the season lol. The customer service was very nice and if I ever visit again I will be back. Definitely recommend a visit.

It is indeed the best Martabak I have tried in the US. I stopped comparing all Indo food or snacks…read morewith one in Indo, but this is the best one man especially the tofu is very nostalgic and I really really love tofu so much. There's not a lot of places, especially in LA area that have savory Martabak, but this one nails it. I was only doing day trip to Philly so I was able to place a pick up order and they were very nice to have me pick up way after the opening hours because I was running late. Just keep in mind that they made it fresh so it's better to call couple hours in advance for them to make your order. I would say 3 to 4 hours before. They are combined store with other type of food like fried chicken and have a similar name so I can't wait to come back to Philly and try those fried chicken! When I went there to pick up my order, it was raining, but there were people waiting for that chicken orders. The auntie is also very nice. Their sign and color is very catchy so it's hard to miss. Vibe is very homie as well.

Both of us are big fans of martabak, so we decided to stop by and give this place a try. The shop…read moreis quite small and is mainly geared toward takeout, as there is no indoor seating available. We ordered the cheese and Nutella martabak, and it was absolutely delicious. The martabak was fresh, flavorful, and definitely satisfied our craving. The only downside was the service, which was not as friendly as we had hoped. While the food was excellent, a warmer and more welcoming attitude would have made the overall experience even better.

This market is closed. It has been closed since, at least, October 2019…read more The closure is not due to COVID. It just closed and did not post any sign giving a reason or a new address.

Variedades Veracruzana has become a frequent stop on my ingredient shopping sprees that lead me…read morethrough the 9th Street Italian Market and down Washington Avenue... This tiny tienda has been taking care of all my Mexican hot sauce needs for some time now. If you're lookin for it, they probably have it: Tapatio, El Yucateco, Cholula, Valentina, and on and on. Most are significantly less expensive than if you were to buy em at a Supermarket of sorts. For instance, the Valentina extra hot salsa picante, which we've been shakin on everything lately, costs less than two buckaroos for the giant 34 oz bottle. Glug glug! Similarly mas cheap than usual are ingredients like La Morena chipotles in adobo... all that good stuff I'm constantly needing to stock up on. Besides my obvious love of Mexican condimentos, I frequently cook up a lot of sauces using ancho chiles, chiles de arbol, pasillas, guajillos, cascabels, look at me I'm just listing a buncha chiles... oh but there are more! These are what draw me again and again to this little shop. The many varieties of quality dried chiles are available in the bins to the left of the counter. And once again, this ol' bargain hunter is gonna have to make note of the good prices: They run $6.50 a pound, and for reference, about there are about 45 or so large dried guajillo pods in a pound. Que ganga!

Highly recommend! The staff is so kind and welcoming! The prices are incredibly fair…read more You can find uncooked meat, frozen meat, ready to go meat! They also have plenty of non perishable grocery items like spices, honey, rice etc. We grabbed a pack of fresh pita bread for the week, a can of Tunisian harissa paste and a pack of fresh lychees. I'd like to try buy a platter one day from them for lunch. They cook up fish dishes on Fridays as a special!

Extremely friendly owners and great food at a very fair price. I just moved to the area and tried…read morethem for the first time a few days ago. Looking forward to many more visits in the future!