an dong market 安東超市

I have been shopping at An Dong Market 安東超市almost as long as I first move to Portland from Toronto. It is a medium Asian grocery store. I have seen the up and down of this store over the years. When the few larger supermarket like Asian grocery stores open it had a hard time staying afloat because of the loss leader prices the new stores was offering to rob away customers from existing stores. To me the price difference was so insignificant and I remain a loyal customer.


The staff there are always very nice and they recognize me as long time customer. I know a lot of restaurants also buy from them. For instance, I have seen the staff from Pok Pok pick up supply there.

That does not mean I don't go to other stores. I do shop around occasionally, but often to find ingredients An Dong does not have. For me An Dong is most convenient and I can also go to the few nearby Asian seafood stores without and avoid dealing with the traffic around 82nd Avenue. While it is not a very large store I found they have the best vegetable. Their meat is also very good especially pork and some beef. They carry just about anything you would need for cooking most Asian dishes. Over time they have increased their selection a lot. Whenever I go there I always look through the whole store even though I know where they keep what. Often I would find new things and in a recent trip is no exception.

In this trip I bought 3 pieces of cookware. I bought a strainer from Vietnam, a small skillet from Korea, and this great mandolin all for incredibly low prices. I was so delight to see this Japanese mandolin. It is the Super Benriner which I have in my Amazon wish list. If you a informed and demanding cook you would know there is only two brands of mandolin to buy. Either ones made by Benriner or the ones by Ambrunn Bron. The latter cost about $150. An Dong beat Amazon by $4.50 on this Super Benriner! This week I asked Lily the cashier if they sell many of the Benriner mandolin. I was thinking I was the only customer who did. Lily told me she sold a lot to restaurants who buy from An Dong.

I have never own a mandolin. Recently I made a curry crab dish and I wished I had one.

i am always delight to find something new there

I love to cook so one of my weakness is buying cookwares. These days boutique cookware stores do not excite me anymore. I find frill in chance encounters of hard to find but very affordable Asian cookwares in stores like An Dong, or from my overseas trips.

this bag of dried taiwanese wheat noodles weights 6 lb for only $9.90 - it is the first time i found this in portland and it is one of the best dried noodles

 beef soup noodles with morning glory

 with a-choy

with yellow chive

with over-the-top amount of toasted garlic

If you live in Portland and like Asian cuisine I highly recommend you give this store a try.