If you want to cook Oriental food, but cook it properly then this should be your port of call,…read moreopposed to Sainsbury's or Tesco. Firstly, you will get way more produce for your money and also was more items that you would ever see on a supermarket shelf. As a chef, this place has allowed me to cook far more dishes than I would have been able to without the stock they sell. From expected noodles and soy sauce to palm sugar, if it's in a recipe they will likely sell it. There is also a nice range of cooking items like woks and crockery all at decent prices. What I also like is having a hunt through the freezer compartments for dumplings, Chinese buns and dim sum. You can even get random Chinese sweets like white rabbit candy (very tasty). The owner is a really sweet lady, who will happily have a little chat and offer the odd cooking tip. You will also find a lot of adverts on the shop front for Oriental cooking lessons, which would be a good way to get more out the shop. A very nice supermarket that offers something a little out of the ordinary.

I've got a real soft spot for places like this - speciallity foods but without the high prices…read moreand pretension. This is somewhere for real cooks, who want to make Oriental food properly, with authentic ingredients. They have all the basics - sweet chilli, soy, noodles rice - that you can get anywhere, but at much better prices and with a better range than any supermarket. They also stock lots of things that you won't find everywhere - unusual herbs and spices, and an array of tins and packages with unfamiliar and exciting looking names. Well, those bits I can read, anyway.

Stepping through the door of Fortune Supermarket might not guarantee you a winning lottery ticket…read morebut it does give you access to a whole world of Chinese goodies! Halfway up one of Brighton's most densely populated streets of restaurants, it's a one-stop shop for everything you might need for a Chinese feast. There's a fridge stacked with fresh pak choi, oyster mushrooms, babycorn and other fresh veggies, a freezer packed with spring rolls, dumplings, fish and meat and shelves of sauces, oils, rice, noodles and candies. I'd give it an extra star if it occupied a smaller space. As it is, there's too much empty space - which could be used to stock more treats. If some of it's occupied next time I visit, I'll give it a fourth star.

Fortune Supermarket was as close to being back in Korea as I've experienced in an Asian import…read morestore: the set up, the cramped aisles, the smell of spices and, of course, the stock. They had bags of kimchi! Only in bulk, and a bit pricey, but yay. Also: dried cuttle fish (and other meats), mango-flavoured desserts, cakes made from gooey rice paste, seaweed, tonnes of curries, soup mixes and tofus. Fruits and vegetables were available fresh and in cans; and beans in cans or dried and in bags. The shop also sells kitchenware and crockery: bamboo steamers, rice spoons and mats for rolling sushi (or kimbap.) It was the most authentic shop I've been in here, a vast selection of all the Asian specialties.

Pineapple Veg is a great little place to pick up fruit, veg and other bits and bobs. As part of a…read morebid to stop using Sainsburys in favour of supporting local small businesses and independent shops, I have found myself popping in more and more. As the fruit and veg stalls at the Open Market seem to be in decline- some having moved on altogether and some there only once in a while- Pineapple has become my new fruit and veg hot spot! The selection is great and they often have interesting seasonal fruit...watermelons, blood oranges, plantains and pomegranates to name but a few! Beyond the produce, they also stock all sorts of ethnic yummies and dried and tinned food too. A great place to look for inspiration and new recipe ideas! The guys who work there are really nice and on 'Snow Day' earlier this year they built three hilarious little snow people out side the shop, which made me love the place all the more!

Me and my flatmate went via Pineapple fruit and veg ltd on the London road, to look for some tasty,…read morefresh ingredients for a long awaited curry we had planned to make that night. Even though the daylight hours had long gone, and we were getting increasingly hungry, the eclectic, obscure and affordable selection of products on offer kept us in the shop browsing the aisles like two old ladies. Pineapple, has all the usual suspects of the fruit and veg world; potatoes, onions, tomatoes, peppers, chilis (scotch bonnets are 13p each!) etc...all at a lower price than the high street supermarkets dotted around Brighton, so worth a visit for your standards. What though is the trump card of this place is the selection of Middle Eastern, Turkish and Polish speciality foods such as the huge naan style bread which looks like it could feed a family for a week, and the massive 1kg jars of pickled cabbage, jalapenos, gherkins etc etc... (1kg!!!) all for around the £3-4 mark. Also a good selection of dried and fresh spices and herbs (such as a bunch of coriander for less than £1), fruit juices, and interesting condiments, Pineapple is a treasure trove of ethnic food, for a really reasonable price. I highly recommend taking a look.

Mam Africa is a well stocked African food store at the top of the Lewes Road, just next to the M&S…read moreBT Garage. The store is actually quite large and has a good selection of produce, mostly tinned or dried. I think this place has much the same produce as Afrikmart on the London road, but it's a little more expensive, and it cannot boast of 4kg of onions for 98p, like the former can. However a good selection of dried spices and fishes like cod, herring and prawns can be found here. Though if you live on the Lewes Road and you need to get the right ingredients for your African cuisine, your all good because you have this place, as well as Daratic on the other side of the road. I don't know what it is, but Mam Africa stocks something called Fufu flour which I like the name of. I'm not sure if that should be a deal breaker though.

I wasn't sure if Mam Africa Market was open, as all the lights were off, but it was. It's a larger…read moreimport shop than many of the others in the area, and is well stocked. Most items seemed to be of the ingredient nature - the back shelves were filled with assorted flours in different sizes. Beans, oils, and spices were also available in several varieties. Having the lights off made it difficult to browse through the tins of food, but I did spot both canned fruit and fish, and large tins of baby food had also been imported.

It doesn't look like much from the outside but the food is awesome which is what really matters. My…read moreboyfriend told me about this place and when I went with him I ended up eating a shawarana AND a lamb kofta (and I don't even like lamb...) The owner was super friendly and helpful. Really dig it there and it's pretty damn cheap too! Apparently the falafels are home made using a special recipe - try one :)

Middle Eastern restaurant selling falafel, shawarma and other Arabic and Levantine snacks. There's…read morenothing here that I wouldn't recommend, the food is excellent as is the Arabic coffee and the people who run the place are also great. The place is usually pretty quiet, which is good in a way but it certainly deserves to be discovered by more people.

Al-Amin has a good selection of imported foods, considering its size. Fresh fruits and vegetables…read moreare displayed both inside the shop and out onto the sidewalk, all looking healthy and delicious. On the shelves are several pre-packaged sauces for those who don't have time to whip things up from scratch; as well as ingredients for baking and cooking. Beans, rice, nuts, pastas, flours...many choices for each item. The back of the shop held a meat counter, and possibly a kitchen behind it. I heard someone ordering, "More chilli!" and it smelled like yummy, spicy soup.

Al Amin Exotic Foods is a grocery wholesaler with a good range of Middle Eastern ingredients…read more Being a wholesaler, it's pretty cheap, and stocks more commonly seen things such as the full range of Patak's spice pastes and sauces alongside fresh imported vegetables and halal products. The halal section looks good, including frozen burgers and fast food as well as a fresh meat counter. There's also a toiletries section where you can buy kohl and hair oil, and various products from different countries that might not be so widely available in the UK. They have exotic and intriguing looking sweeties, and a good range of snacks. It was a bit of a strange atmosphere when I went in and I didn't feel entirely at ease browsing, but then it's a very small shop and there's pretty much nowhere for the counter attendant to look except straight at you. He seemed like an approachable man though, who would enter into a discussion about what ingredients you might need for something specific. By and large I think this place would be a good visit if you had a curry night planned, or generally just fancy expanding your culinary horizons.

Situated opposite Waitrose on Western Road, this is an interesting supermarket, focusing on Asian…read morecuisine, with the emphasis on natural, organic and fairly-traded produce. The array of exotic fresh herbs and spices is impressive, but they also do a wide range of fresh fruit and vegetables and dairy products, which are as locally sourced as possible. They also have an extensive range of special diet products - for example, gluten free, vegan and vegetarian products, and organic baby food. Prices vary hugely, though: pittas are very good value, for example, but some other items are more expensive. But with such a wide range it is unlikely you won't be able to find what you want. The main downer - as others have said - is the staff, who vary from friendly to downright dismissive. The other particular gripe is the awkward queuing system, that means that on every visit, someone who has arrived later has ended up getting served before me.

I'm sorry but it has to be a 5...I have never ever seen such an amazing assortment of (mainly)…read moreAsian food...wow...that is in addition to all the usual fruit & veg...everything you ever wanted and more including things you have never heard of or seen! If only there were more like this. No wonder it was full of people from every clime and shore...brilliant...we took the opportunity to stock up on a few things we can't get anywhere but we really had to restrain ourselves...good thing we don't live in Brighton! Go there - its worth it; ignore prices...if you want it they've got it

I'm picky about my Asian markets, and this is the one I end up going to most frequently in…read moreBrighton. In tandem with my biweekly organic japanese vegetable box from nama-yasai, this supermarket tends to have everything I need to round out my Japanese pantry. There's little in the way of goods from other Asian countries, so while the cuisines often share ingredients in common -- soy sauce, sesame oil -- just note there's not much Chinese fare on offer, and just a scant smattering of Korean seasonings that are popular in Japan. Among the items they have in stock that you will likely find it difficult to find elsewhere (and I say this because I tried to find them elsewhere) are: - Katakuriko, or potato starch, commonly used similarly to how corn starch is used in other cusines and of course gluten free! - Konyakku, a block of yam cake seasoned with seaweed (like shirataki noodles, which they also stock, but the solid block form can be harder to find) - Mountain vegetables, used in stews and one pot meals - Chikuwa, or grilled hollow cylindrical squid cakes - Frozen sushi grade fish - Japanese style cake mix and pancake mix, which are different from one another, and used by a ton of recipes on cookpad website They also carry fresh Japanese foods made in house, of which the harder-to-find offerings would be takoyaki (fried octopus/squid inside spherical dough), onigiri (rice balls with a filling in the center), and mochi/daifuku (a type of dessert made from sweet rice pounded into a dough and a sweet filling in the center). And while I mean no offense to E-Kagen, here are things I don't recommend you get there, or which you can't get there: - Umeboshi (japanese pickled plums), because they're not the tastiest and overpriced for the small quantity... see if you can get the jarred Clearspring ones from Infinity foods instead. - Umeboshi purree, because it's common in Japanese recipes to request chopped Umeboshi to be added to something, especially a dressing, and it's cheaper and faster to use this item instead... E-Kagen doesn't carry it, so you'll need to go to hiSbe for it. - Shiso-ume seasoning, commonly used with rice... E-Kagen doesn't carry it, but neither does anybody in Brighton. Le sigh. - The selection of fresh japanese vegetables is limited (this is true of anywhere in Brighton) and you will probably need to go to Japan Centre in London for what you seek, or order a vegetable box like I do. Credit card minimum is 10 pounds, and they charge extra for packets of condiments if you are buying any of their ready made food (e.g. packets of soy sauce and wasabi carry a charge). The staff is always very friendly and you can ask them if you're looking for something specific, though sometimes the answer is that they don't have it!

We had such a wonderful time learning all about the wine. Our wine guide was a delightful chap…read morecalled Will. Will is incredibly knowledgeable about the wines he introduced us to, taking us through the history of the grape / vineyard through to the flavours we should expect. We got to try six delectable wines, paired with the perfect cheese for the tasting. Oh yes! Now, don't think you're going to get enough nibbles to constitute a full meal... Also, I would suggest a late lunch if possible as you will end up fairly jolly as they have generous pours... We were trashed by the end of it bantering with Will and cracking jokes left right and centre (or at least we were in our minds). Will was happy to join in, and we hoped we left more of a good impression rather than a "thank god they're gone!" sigh of relief. The venue itself is a great size with small tables scattered around the centre table (where we were sat as a larger group of six). The decor is light, modern and filled with the chatter of happy drinkers. I also took home a bottle of my fave wine of the night. Offering 10% off purchases that evening sealed the deal for me (and the fact I needed to pack the bottle in my suitcase as I dreaded my hangover the next day before my 12 hour flight back to Hong Kong!).

Brilliant selection of wines, it's so nice to go beyond the basic supermarket offerings…read more I did a tasting here and it was wonderful. The host was so knowledgeable, welcoming and not at all pretentious or intimidating if you're a beginner wine fan! I ended up buying a couple of bottles to take home :) Have come here several times and would definitely recommend for a pleasant and relaxed evening.

M&S Simply Food at Brighton Station is one of the few shops inside the station concourse, it is…read moreprobably one of the better places in the station to grab some to-go food and drinks ahead of a train journey, with rivals Superdrug and WHSmith barely having a food selection, and PRET being the only other place which sells food, but even then they sell a limited menu compared to other stores. This is pretty different from other M&S Simply Food stores as it is a travel store, they specialise in to go food and drinks at really high prices, as I recall a meal deal cost around £5 which is £1.50 more than a regular store, an increase of around 42.8%. I understand travel stores can cost more because of the location, but this seems to just take it a little step further, knowing there is little competition elsewhere in the station and it is from the Marks and Spencer brand, which has a reputation for being towards the higher-end scale for food anyway. The gluten-free selection was awful, they didn't have any wraps or pasta pots which stores usually have, they had two varieties of sandwiches, even then this is quite poor for a Marks and Spencer store, who have much more to choose from. I personally have a strong hate for seeded bread, which is why it frustrates me to see so many places only offering gluten-free sandwiches on seeded bread, and this location is sadly no different. A useful store, but they really do need to work on making pricing much more reasonable and stock of gluten-free items, which Marks and Spencer are usually pretty good here, so this branch is pretty rare in that sense. 2*

Y'know those long journeys when you've been travelling for hours and just want to get home, pull on…read moreyour PJs and eat something warm and homely? Well, if your train pulls in at Brighton Station you can pick up a roasted chicken, mashed potato and asparagus from the M&S Simply Food. They're open til 11pm every day except Sunday and also sell staples like bread, milk, yoghurt, fruit and juice. Of course, Marks and Spencer is always slightly more expensive than other grocery stores but the food is usually of such good quality it makes up for the extra pennies. If you're super-tired, you can also pick up muffins and coffee for breakfast the next day!