[Update - Closed as of Summer 2011]
On our way home from Zion, we had to go to Costco near our place to pick up some salmon. To do double duty, Bert parked near Kmart and walked it while TC and I checked out the newly opened North Park Produce. This new market is in the former location of electronics store, The Good Guys. According to one of my students whose parents own a liquor store, the owners are Middle Eastern. North Park Produce also has locations in El Cajon and Poway. Some of the reviews I read in Yelp had good reviews about the selection of goods from around the world but trashed their produce saying the quality wasn't so great.
At this new location, the produce looked like it was very fresh. It wasn't bagged or packed in plastic containers like at Trader Joe's or Fresh and Easy. One could actually hold an individual fruit or vegetables and not be stuck with a prepackaged item. Ever since my "incident" at Fresh and Easy, I have not used my camera in any kind of market! One you walk in, the fresh produce is to your right. On the left side are bakery items, plus cheese, olives, and the frozen foods aisle. I was quite impressed because they had FILIPINO food items! I don't have to drive all the way to Seafood City anymore! They had longganisa, tapa, lumpia, and even Magnolia ice cream! Oh my God! And for their fresh vegetables, they had the Chinese long beans, bok choy (spelled as boc choy), bittermelon (wow!) and opo (sometimes spelled as 'upo') squash. They had such a great selection of spices from around the world. Lots of Indian, Mexican, Greek and Middle Eastern food items. They also had various Asian items as well. Stuff that I didn't expect to see here.
Unfortunately, we didn't spend a long time perusing the aisles (I don't have a detailed description here) since we had bulgogi meat in our car. Didn't want that to spoil. So, after I got a few items (seen below sans the 2% milk and Hinode Calrose rice), we took off. Here are some impulse purchase chocolate bars I picked up while in line. Russian, I believe. Wait, the wrapper says Ukraine.
I had a nice conversation with two Hispanic ladies in line behind me. We were marveling over the store's selection of items and the woman was happy to get a large vegetable tray for about $3! Her blueberries were only $1.49 along with raspberries...For the photo below, the chocolate biscuits are from Holland while the hazelnut wafers are from Croatia. Most of these items were less than $2.
I thought I'd try a different brand of Corned Beef this time, Targeter brand from Brazil. I'll let you know how this in in a future post. Being Filipino, I have my own twist on my canned corned beef recipe.
Looks like North Park Produce is going to give Fresh and Easy a run for it's money. It's much larger and has a huge selection of all kinds of items. They even had fenugreek seeds, which I bought a few weeks ago at Ker market for my co-worker. I'll be making more trips here in the future. It's so close by and I still want to go aisle by aisle and look at what they have. It kind of reminds me of the European Market I went to in Astoria this summer.
On our way home from Zion, we had to go to Costco near our place to pick up some salmon. To do double duty, Bert parked near Kmart and walked it while TC and I checked out the newly opened North Park Produce. This new market is in the former location of electronics store, The Good Guys. According to one of my students whose parents own a liquor store, the owners are Middle Eastern. North Park Produce also has locations in El Cajon and Poway. Some of the reviews I read in Yelp had good reviews about the selection of goods from around the world but trashed their produce saying the quality wasn't so great.
At this new location, the produce looked like it was very fresh. It wasn't bagged or packed in plastic containers like at Trader Joe's or Fresh and Easy. One could actually hold an individual fruit or vegetables and not be stuck with a prepackaged item. Ever since my "incident" at Fresh and Easy, I have not used my camera in any kind of market! One you walk in, the fresh produce is to your right. On the left side are bakery items, plus cheese, olives, and the frozen foods aisle. I was quite impressed because they had FILIPINO food items! I don't have to drive all the way to Seafood City anymore! They had longganisa, tapa, lumpia, and even Magnolia ice cream! Oh my God! And for their fresh vegetables, they had the Chinese long beans, bok choy (spelled as boc choy), bittermelon (wow!) and opo (sometimes spelled as 'upo') squash. They had such a great selection of spices from around the world. Lots of Indian, Mexican, Greek and Middle Eastern food items. They also had various Asian items as well. Stuff that I didn't expect to see here.
Unfortunately, we didn't spend a long time perusing the aisles (I don't have a detailed description here) since we had bulgogi meat in our car. Didn't want that to spoil. So, after I got a few items (seen below sans the 2% milk and Hinode Calrose rice), we took off. Here are some impulse purchase chocolate bars I picked up while in line. Russian, I believe. Wait, the wrapper says Ukraine.
I had a nice conversation with two Hispanic ladies in line behind me. We were marveling over the store's selection of items and the woman was happy to get a large vegetable tray for about $3! Her blueberries were only $1.49 along with raspberries...For the photo below, the chocolate biscuits are from Holland while the hazelnut wafers are from Croatia. Most of these items were less than $2.
I thought I'd try a different brand of Corned Beef this time, Targeter brand from Brazil. I'll let you know how this in in a future post. Being Filipino, I have my own twist on my canned corned beef recipe.
Looks like North Park Produce is going to give Fresh and Easy a run for it's money. It's much larger and has a huge selection of all kinds of items. They even had fenugreek seeds, which I bought a few weeks ago at Ker market for my co-worker. I'll be making more trips here in the future. It's so close by and I still want to go aisle by aisle and look at what they have. It kind of reminds me of the European Market I went to in Astoria this summer.
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