In Staten Island, if you ever want to shop for a wide variety of East-Asian and standard groceries for decent prices, I highly recommend Asian Food; which is also known as the Asian Food Market of Staten Island and Měidōng (美東). By taking the S40 bus from the D row of the ferry terminal to Forest Av/South Av in around 30 minutes, you can find many essential ingredients for cooking Asian cuisine such as various different types of sauces, powders, noodles, fruits, vegetables, and meat: including live fish and crabs. Even some of my favorite Japanese delis and markets in Manhattan do not have as much of a wide variety of items as this store has.

When you walk into this market, you mostly smell the aroma of various chili oil and chili powder as well as the scent of the fresh fish. My personal favorite food to buy from this market is durian, which is a fruit from Southeast-Asia known for its spiky shell, cheesecake taste and texture, and its very smelly aroma. I usually either buy pre-cut durian from Thailand or fresh not yet cut durian from Vietnam: which is priced based on how many pounds it weighs. When holding durian that is still in its shell, make sure you are very careful when handling it. It can cause bleeding on your fingers and definitely wear gardening gloves when cutting it.

There is another big Asian supermarket in Staten Island known as HL Supermarket. However, I never been to this market before but I have heard it is even better than Asian Food. I also plan on going to the Phil-Am Food Mart, which specializes in Filipino cuisine. I hope to go there in the future and that anyone reading this will visit either market after reading this article.

• Asian Food: 2343 Forest Ave, Staten Island, NY 10303
• HL Supermarket: 2380 Hylan Blvd, Staten Island, NY 10306
• Phil-Am Food Mart: 527 Tompkins Ave., Staten Island, NY 10305