My syndicated Super-Couponing Tips column for the week is entitled “Explore ethnic food markets for surprising savings.“
Here’s an excerpt:
“For example, this Asian market has an enormous fish counter with dozens of varieties of fresh fish. We are fans of monkfish, a firm-fleshed fish with a taste very similar to lobster. We used to purchase it at a specialty fish market for $10.99 per pound as an occasional treat, but this Asian market sells monkfish for $3.99 per pound every day. It’s so reasonable that I buy extra to freeze so we can enjoy several meals between trips. Ethnic markets are also likely to carry produce items that you may not find elsewhere. My husband loves Korean pears, which are not readily available at our local grocery stores, but local Asian markets carry them regularly.”
Read this entire column at the Herald-Dispatch.
My Super-Couponing Tips column appears in newspapers around the country to a weekly readership of over 20 million people! Learn more about my column’s syndication at this link.
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J.R. says
Where is there a good Asian market in your area? I’m not that far from you.
If you like German stuff, check out Aldi. Being German owned, they have lots of stuff I can’t find elsewhere.
Coupon Maven says
J.R, we go to H Mart:
https://www.hmart.com/storelocator/index/index/id/19/
There’s one in Schaumburg, but the Niles location is our favorite. It simply blows all the other stores away in size, scope, and product availability. It’s also a supermarket-within-a-mall, with lots of smaller Asian shops inside. We typically make the drive once a month to stock up. The pandemic threw a wrench into that for a while in 2020, but we are back to our regular shopping schedule.
While we’re heading that way, we also stop at Hello Tokyo in NIles: https://www.hellotky.com/store-info-1 – it’s a Daiso store (like a dollar store) with lots of Japanese toys, gadgets, treats, and unique finds. We can easily spend a whole Saturday between these two stores. :)
assassin says
i’ve seen H Mart from a distance, but never gone in. it is giant, so should make for lots of exploration. that building (or the plot of land?) used to be an Omni, iirc. i remember my interest being piqued 2.5 decades ago when they advertised video games in addition to groceries.
have you been to Patel Brothers? they have a quite new Niles location, and a Schaumburg store. i lack the imagination to buy ethnic food, but they have great prices on even “standard” produce. for instance, a few weeks back, they were selling cucumbers 6/$1.00! i can’t think of a time in the past decade or more when they were cheaper. it’s very rare that i find them under $0.50. the store has also had some excellent deals on bell peppers of various colors.
Coupon Maven says
I didn’t realize it used to be an Omni! Thanks for the backstory. Yes, go when you have lots of time to explore — it’s fun! Their seafood market is enormous and has so many different things. Prices are really good. (My son often asks if we can bring some .99 live blue crabs home and keep them as pets instead of… dinner.)
They have so many fascinating snack foods, sauces, you name it. If you like Japanese Hot Pot, you can buy large platters of shaved meat ready to cook hot-pot style too. They also sell large platters of sashimi-cut fish.
I’ve not been to Patel Brothers. We live way out in the NW burbs, and the Hmart trip is something we really only do once a month due to distance, but it sounds like it’s worth checking out.