Aisle Check

  • Heaven Is the Food Court at a Suburban Japanese Supermarket

    I took a delicious snack tour of Mitsuwa, a huge Japanese supermarket and food court in New Jersey, and came out knowing a lot more about milky soft drinks and pickled root vegetables.

  • Brighton Beach Is a Paradise of Pickles and Cow Feet

    To learn more about the salty fish and cabbage that I'd briefly flirted with in my youth, I headed to Brighton Beach—a middle-class, heavily Jewish, and Russian-speaking neighborhood deep in the southern part of Brooklyn—for a bit of former Soviet...

  • I Tried and Nearly Failed to Understand British Food

    My first experiences with British food weren't spectacular, so I visited Myers of Keswick, a Manhattan grocer specializing in UK imports, to help me come to terms with pork pies, Branston pickle, and sticky toffee pudding from a tin.

  • The Best Mexican Grocery Stores Are Usually Hidden

    I'm a huge fan of secret grocery stores, piñatas, and Mexican food, which I was convinced didn't exist until reality recently proved me wrong. My friend, Mars Ostarello, guided me through a secret Mexican grocery store tucked inside of a deli.

  • I Explored New York Chinatown's Busiest Supermarket at the Worst Possible Time

    Saturdays are the worst for visiting a supermarket in Manhattan's Chinatown, but it was the only day my friend and Chinese grocery expert, Ho-Mui Wong, was available. While she showed me some everyday staples to a Chinese-American diet.

  • Stop Calling Grocery Stores 'Ethnic'

    I grew up in Jackson Heights, a diverse neighborhood with a variety of ethnicities, but I don’t get the word “ethnic” in terms of grocery stores. This is my column dedicated to exploring those air quote shops around the US.

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