I don’t currently have any ethnic grocery stores near me, but when I did, the Mexican ones always had chicken thighs for cheap, and also limes.

Like, the regular grocery store might have limes at $0.50 each (in the midwest), while the ethnic store would have 10/$1.00. (pre-covid, pre-inflation prices.)

And there was this Ukrainian place where, from the deli, they would sell in trays a mix of the butt ends of the deli meats and cheeses. They’d label it by weight some bulk price that was often cheaper than some of the meats or cheeses contained in it.

It was like being able to get a cheap meat/cheese sampler tray. So there’d be chunks of salami, turkey, olive loaf–or swiss, american, munster…just whatever meats or cheeses they got to the ends of recently.

At an Asian place I used to go to, I could get tilapia, basa, or swai in frozen fillets for cheap. I actually liked the basa and swai–they’re basically farmed asian catfish, but can’t be labeled catfish as a way to protect the north american catfish industry. I can see why they wanted to prevent competition–I find that basa and swai don’t have the “muck” taste that local catfish have.

Anyway, what are some good deals you have been able to find at local ethnic grocery stores?

  • RegnaEnglish
    2•1 year ago

    I live in an area that has several ethnic stores (iranian, lebanese, and some mixed “oriental”), with varying quality. I buy rice, saffron and nuts there.

    • Rice: 5 - 10 kg bags or basmati and jasmine rice (we divide it with some neighbours, as we don’t cook with rice daily), which both tastes much better than chain store bought and is of a better quality. And as we buy in bulk, it’s cheaper, and the brands we usually buy are apparently lower in arsenic contents than the ones from the chain stores.
    • Saffron: The quality of saffron I can get in the iranian stores is much, much higher than the one sold in chain stores. And it’s the same price.
    • Nuts: Don’t get me started on the quality of nuts from some mediterranean focused stores that sell nuts and sweets. I only buy almond and hazelnut fro chain stores when I want to grind them to flour.

    They also stock better dates (medjool), have more varieties of fresh egg plant and squash, and have the best water melons when they’re in season.