*** United Food Mart has closed.
If I need Thai ingredients, or produce like galangal or ngo gai(saw leaf) I'd head over to United Food Mart:
Though a bit worse for wear, United Food Market carries a pretty large selection of canned and
fresh Thai, Laotian, and Vietnamese Food. This is also one of the few Markets where I can always get Kaffir Lime leaves. The prices are very reasonable, and there's an added bonus:
On weekends there's some satay action going on in the parking lot. The drill goes like this – go into the cashier and tell them how many you want. You pay the cashier ($1.25/ea), take the receipt outside to the barbecue Guy, and hand him the receipt. He'll ask you (sometimes very hard to understand) if you want chicken or pork. He then grabs the number of skewers purchased, wraps it in foil. Places it in a sack with some napkins, and you carry on. Today, I bought three ($3.75):
You'll notice only two here; well the Boyz and I got to one before I remembered to get my camera. The chicken is fairly tender and moist, though I found a bit of gristle. There's the distinctive taste of lemongrass and galangal, though very mild overall. Not bad really. These two "sticks" with some musubi (onigiri/rice ball) made for a nice dinner. Untied Oriental Food Market also now has a "hot table" with a variety of food items, I'll probably check them out at a later date.
Oh, and I did actually buy some stuff to justify my stopping here!
United Oriental Food Market
5349 El Cajon Blvd
San Diego, CA 92115-4730
(619) 582-8999
What’s with San Diegan eateries and foil? There’s foil with the BBQ you had at Tita’s and there’s foil on the satay on this post. Then I remember the foil on the Thai salad you had at one food court a while back. FOIL everywhere! 😉
Is Reynold’s based in San Diego? LOL!
(Tongue firmly planted in cheek)
Hi Elmo – I heard they do it for you “Northerners” in OC – they heard you all like “shiny” things.. LOL!!!
LOL!!! Touché! 😉
I like Maesari brand curries better….
Looks like a great spot, I could use some satay right now… mmmm
Hi Clare – OK, I’ll try that next time.
They have a chilli basil paste that is pretty nice as well 🙂
Hey Kirk! thank YOU for visiting my blog. Keep up the great work, I wish Walnut Creek wasn’t so damn upwardly mobile, then we could have parking lot outdoor bbq stuff too. I miss working in SF. (taco trucks!)
Hi Clare – I’ll try that one as well – though I usually make my own!
Hi Penny – Same back at ya’! Walnut Creek is a really nice place to live, though! We sometimes miss living in LA as well…