Guilty Carnivore rated HPM #2 among his favorite Asian markets for Vietnamese ingredients. This is no doubt because it's a really good-sized Vietnamese market (as well as the only real supermarket in Maywood Park). Which isn't to say that they aren't serving other Asian cultures (Thai, Korean, Filipino, Indonesian), African immigrants, or the neighbors (who were all represented at the store the day I was in).

Even without Guilty Carnivore's credibility, I loved this market immediately. It's bustling on a Saturday morning, with a deli area full of Viet goodies. I started in the snack aisle, looking at pops and beers and crisps and luscious little packets of fruit jellies, and soon found myself in the largest selection of frozen shrimp in the city (really, I think it's possible). Conveniently located were all different instant sauce packets and soup mixes and bouillon cubes, including pho bo (pho broth) and pho ga (chicken pho broth). The interior aisles were the usual sorts of canned goods, noodles, rice, fish sauces, soy sauces, dishwares, and of course, an entire aisle of ramen and cups of noodles.

But things get really interesting when you get to the fresh meat and frozen food sections. While there isn't a butcher case, they will cut things to order, and you can find all the cuts that you might want for Vietnamese cooking. The selection is huge. The freezer case is full of all sorts of prepared foods... including betel nut and whole and pieced durian (the durian gets its own cooler. Open it to find out why).

The produce section has fresh noodles and tofu, naturally, as well as prepacked options like banana leaf, longan, rambutan chom chom, thai eggplant, sawleaf, bean sprouts, limes, etc.

This is just a great shopping experience. People are friendly, and once I got my armful of cup-of-noodles and bouillon cubes to the check-out counter, I asked the woman ahead of me inline about the strange shrubby herb she was buying. Both she and the checker seemed thrilled that I was asking, and even though we had some language barriers, I learned it was Indian Bitter Melon, and you have to eat it with salt and MSG (because otherwise it will taste very bad).

I just wish this was a little closer to me, as it's a great market.