Exploring Hartford's many markets, part I

Some of my favorite memories from growing up in Hartford have been going to the city's markets with my mother. Different sections of town evoke strong recollections of smells, tastes and colorful packaging in different languages. This all came flooding back to me recently during a discussion with a friend who was beginning to venture into her own cooking adventures and was curious about where to start for produce and new products besides the typical supermarkets. We decided to plan a marketing day around the city. One of our stops included A Dong Supermarket, an Asian grocery store off of New Britain Avenue. I love visiting here because it's such an adventure.

Enter the market past the small shrine in the entrance, and walk past the glass case lined with smoked duck, pork, and other meats that many not be so easily identifiable and you are have three possible points to begin. The far right is home goods such as woks, ornate plates, cups, sake sets, and other cooking and home goods. Middle aisles are brimming with varieties of noodles, sauces, candies, teas, dried vegetables, and canned items such as lychees and jackfruit. Or you can veer to the left, my favorite side. This is where you can explore the table of prepared desserts, such as sesame buns, and items like Banh U Dau, made of rice and wrapped in banana leaves (luckily they all list the ingredients on the label)

Or you can venture over to the bakery case to order items such as pork buns or coconut cakes. I am partial to the produce section. On this particular visit, I found some incredible looking watercress for tea sandwiches for the pleasing price of .85! A bin packed with bright pink fruit caught my attention as well and I spent some time trying to figure out what it might be before reading the sign.

I had to giggle when I realized that it was a "Dragonfruit", which I had only ever heard of as one of the Vitamin Water flavors. A very appropriate name given it's looks. The seafood case is also interesting to walk past, for there, entire fish are layed out on display, (not filets). 
Ever thinking, I was struck with the thought that the sparsely filled cases were brilliant for two reasons. First was that the amount of waste was far less. When you shop at a typical US supermarket, the cases are piled high, from front to back with seafood, meats, and poultry, with barely any space between items, and a tremendous amount of those items are not sold and get thrown away. Secondly, by showing the fish in it's entirely, there is more respect for the food item as a fish that lost its live to sustain us, instead of divorcing ourselves from that and seeing it just as a filet. 

On the way to checkout, it's fun to go down the beverage aisle and pick out something new to sample. Example being, I have no idea what Pennywort is, but I plan on trying it next time that I am there! 

Location: A Dong Supermarket, 160 Shield St, West Hartford, CT 06110