Asian Groceries in Prague: Sapa and Zlatnická
On the southern edge of Prague there's a compound with a preschool, a Buddhist shrine, legal advice offices and around fifty Vietnamese weddings a year. On paper it's a shopping center; in reality it's a Vietnamese city within a city. And I go there to do my shopping.
For Asian groceries I have two addresses in Prague: for the big runs the Sapa market and its largest store, Tamda Foods, and for the small ones an unassuming little shop on Zlatnická Street a few steps from the Palladium. Asian food is one of my favorites and I cook it almost every other day, so I know both places pretty well.
Alongside the warehouses and the shops selling clothes and toys, dozens of bistros in Sapa serve Vietnamese specialties - I cover those in The Best Restaurants in Prague's Sapa.
Tamda Foods: The Wholesale Superstore Where Czechs Shop Too
The main destination of my shopping trips is Tamda Foods, a wholesale superstore that has been running in Sapa since 2011 and is about the size of a Makro or a big Tesco; these days there are branches in Brno and Ústí nad Labem too. And it really does compete with Makro: the two compete for the business of corner-shop owners, who come here to restock. You can buy almost any everyday essential here, from cleaning products to drinks to housewares; the aisles are numbered like in a warehouse and I've always found the Asian groceries somewhere around aisle 24. The heart of the selection is exactly what you go through fastest when you cook Asian: dozens of kinds of noodles, rice, sauces and ready-made curry pastes. If you get lost in the aisles, start with my favorite ingredients from What to Buy in Sapa. And if you run a business, sole traders and companies alike, pick up a Tamda card at the information desk - it gets you better prices.
Tamda Foods
Zlatnická: A Big Slice of Asia in a Small Convenience Store
Sapa is all the way across Prague from me, so for a quick top-up - mostly of fresh herbs - I head to the small H.T.H. shop on Zlatnická Street just around the corner from the Palladium shopping center. From the front it looks like an ordinary Prague convenience store; the back room, though, is all Asian, and the chiller cabinet holds vegetables and herbs you won't find anywhere else in the center - cilantro and my beloved perilla. For some brands this little shop carries more than Tamda does with all its floor space - the Asian Home Gourmet curry pastes I swear by, for one.
Potraviny H.T.H.
Sunday in Sapa, a Weekday on Zlatnická
Which one I go to sorts itself out: a big haul at Tamda every now and then, a bunch of herbs on Zlatnická in between. I go to Tamda on Sundays - it tends to be packed, because Czechs discovered the cheap prices long ago, but I've never waited more than ten minutes at the checkout. So for the widest choice in Prague I drive out to a former meatpacking plant, and for the freshest herbs to a convenience store. Asia likes to hide in this city - you just have to know which door it's behind.
