Coming in from the Cold: Thai Grocery

There are times when the charms of urban life are a bit elusive, like being stuck on a jam packed grubby train with a delay. That's when stumbling into to someplace like Thai Grocery can remind you that city life does have its glories. I am originally from the sticks where places like this simply don't exist. This market has been around for over 20 years and its narrow aisles
are a great resource for anyone interested in Asian cuisine and I took advantage of having Lincoln's Birthday off (go Abe!) and headed down there this morning.

The shelves hold a wide range of goodies, both expected Southeast Asian specialties such as fish sauce and rice vermicelli as well as some surprises like a great selection of reasonably priced seaweeds, bonito flakes and furikake for Japanese dishes. There is beautifully fresh produce outside of typically supermarket fare including gangal, fresh kefir lime leaves, cilantro roots and 2-3 types of basil. This morning they even had fresh curry leaves for Indian style dishes. The fresh goods also include locally produced tofu and soy milk and I picked up a package of fried tofu with visions of peanut sauce running through my head.

There's a nice selection of take out dishes tucked away in the back, but this morning they were out of my beloved steamed banana, rice and coconut milk dumplings. There was mourning.

For the gadget fetishists among us, Thai Grocery's inventory is rounded out by a small selection of gear such as woks, rice steaming baskets for sticky rice and mortar/pestles.


Thai Grocery
5014 North Broadway
Chicago, IL 60640
(773) 561-5345
One half block west of the Argyle red line stop.