Authentic Asian products for the cook in you (Wing Yip Chinese Supermarket (Croydon))

Member Name: larsbaby

Product:	Wing Yip Chinese Supermarket (Croydon)
Date:	19/07/08 (862 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great choice of exotic foodstuffs

Disadvantages: You always end up buying more than you need

INTRODUCTION

After my myriad of restaurant reviews you'd think I'd never cook but you'd be wrong! I really enjoy cooking Chinese food (mainly because it avoids me coming in direct competition with my mum's Sri Lankan home cooking, but its also easy to stir fry) and Wing Yip is a Chinese supermarket in Croydon with a large range of goods at reasonable prices which is a favourite haunt of mine, not least because it has an excellent dim sum restaurant in the same block. There is also a Vietnamese restaurant and Chinese buffet that I haven't tried yet in the building.

THE SUPERMARKET

I only spotted flat bed trolleys and normal supermarket trolleys, there didn't appear to be any hand baskets.

There is a massive selection of sauces, pastes, dried spices and other condiments covering not just Chinese cookery, but Thai, Japanese and even Indian. There is for example an aisle covering just Japanese food, with things such as katsu curry sauce, udon noodles Japanese soy sauces and miso.

Rice and noodles extensively feature with a whole aisle to themselves and if you dare you get a bag of rice weighing several kg. I also saw basmati and jasmine rice. As for noodles, it gets confusing as egg noodles do no proliferate as much as just lots of varieties of flour noodles and rice noodles. There are also many varieties of noodles to cook in an included soup base, a kind of Super Noodle if you will. These come in packets and cartons and provide a veritable feast for those brave enough to gamble.

I can't even begin to describe the tinned goods, with tinned vegetables vying with tinned meat, fish and oddities like vegetarian duck. Using the tinned cream corn, you can easily rustle up a decent chicken and sweetcorn soup (my tip is to add a dash of chilli oil to the chicken and broth for a bit of a kick).

I have much fun looking at esoteric goods and enjoy buying random ones. On my last trip I got some sort of Thai sauce that is supposed to be stirred in during making fried rice; sounds promising. I also got some tinned Japanese braised eel, which is pretty nice when steamed. But that's just the tip of the iceberg and there are sauces for stirring in with noodles, lots of oyster sauces, chilli oils, marinades, fermented bean curd and dried mushrooms, fish, and so on. Basically if there an Asian sauce it's there!

The frozen goods section, which accounts for a large part of the supermarket, has a big range of ready made meals, dim sum, vegetables, meat and fish. Witness huge chunks of meat, crab claws, abalone, tilapia and calamari rings. I got some calamari tubes that are relatively cheap and turned out to be pretty decent when stir fried. If I looked too deeply into the frozen section I fear that I'd still be there, needless to say they have all kind of things definitely worth trying.

Herbal drinks are not forgotten and there is a big range of teas; I spotted at least 10 varieties of green tea as well as ginseng tea. There are also tinned drinks like mango.

The fresh food section has freshly made tofu, fish and meat as well as refrigerated goods such as fish balls, egg noodles and drinks. Vegetables include Chinese specialities such as Pak Choy and bean sprouts but also spring onions, tomatoes and asparagus

There is a fish and meat counter which looks promising, which also has boxes of fresh bean curd on offer which look nice, although a bit big at 500g a pop!

There is a section for trade sized goods, which is open to everyone although you'd have to have a large family to buy kilograms of sauces at a time.

You can also buy various cooking utensils such as rice cookers, woks and ladles, which are pretty reasonably priced and of decent quality.

There is even a little snack hut which seems to served barbecued meat although I've never seen it open on any Sunday, which is when I usually go there.

At checkout, they seem to be happy to pack for you, they seem to have dedicated team for this, and I've never tried to pack myself. I note that if you want to pay by credit card, you are ushered to a desk behind the tills and queue again, a copy of your invoice being handed to the checkout attendant.

CONCLUSION

I would highly recommend this bustling supermarket for any cooks who want basics for any kind of Eastern cookery. They may also find other delights which, with an open mind, can really expand your range. The prices are also reasonable and seem cheaper that in Chinatown. I have seen Wing Yip branded produce such as oyster sauce on sale in supermarkets like Tesco but at twice the price. Have a look and take a gamble for a much better price!

CONTACT INFORMATION

Wing Yip Ltd
544 Purley Way
Croydon, CR0 4NZ

Telephone : 020 86884880

Website : http://www.wingyip.com/

Summary: Authentic Chinese cookery goodies