Love Chinese supermarkets. Love them. Love. Love this one in particular : Honesto Chinese Supermarket
Sarah took me to this one and gave me a personal tour of the shelves. Things I had to buy. Like Chinese sausage (steam them before you cook with them – she told me). Toothsome tiny shrimp, that I refreshed in hot water and then fried in a splash of oil until they popped. For a week, I put them in and on everything. Noodles. Thin, flat, mung bean, sweet potato, rice, soba – all into the basket so I would never be tempted by Carrefour to pay €4 for a small pack of noodles that have the impudence to clump together in my stir fries.
Easily the score of the trip (and on subsequent trips out of stock making it even more covetable) desiccated shredded pork. It’s a thing. I promise. When you put it in your mouth, it feels disconcertingly like string – or worse hair but in moments it begins to melt. Pork floss is how they refer to it over on Serious Eats. It makes everything better. It just makes life better. Sometimes I drop it into my mouth when no one is looking and I just feel – well…better.
There is a butcher’s at the back for all kinds of cuts and offal. A large tank with live crustacea. Fresh tofu in the fridges. Sauces – shelves of them, all for a fraction of cost you would find them at in a regular supermarket. A liter of sesame oil for just under 6 when the Blue Dragon brand goes for that much for 150ml.
There is an entire room of fresh vegetables and greens. Different kinds of seaweed. Large buckets of fermented greens. Branches of Longan fruit.
Delightful stuff. A treasure trove. Even without mentioning the freezers full of dim sum and dumplings. Wrappers of various dimensions should you want to make your own. They have the bamboo steamers as well – I prefer them to the cumbersome metal kind.
I buy bags of frozen edamame for my kids to snack on and smirk when I see people dish out €4 at the local Japanese place.
I do like Dong Fang in the center but it is more eclectic with its Indian spices and Western jarred foods. Honesto is a proper Chinese supermarket, one that I spend many an hour in.
Honesto Chinese Supermarket
Carrer de la Diputació, 342,
08009
www.honestozd.com
More Chinese Supermarkets in Barcelona:
Dong Fang
Xin Yang Kuang
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