🟧 An Asian grocery store for anywhere
Get your specialty hot pot broth shipped to you online.
Michael Zhao: My wife and I bought our first home in the fall of 2021 in a small, rural town in southwestern Vermont that we’d been visiting for several years, drawn by its exceptional cycling and relatively affordable real estate. We now live a shorter walk to the supermarket than we ever did in Brooklyn, but the inventory at our local Shaw’s leaves much to be desired, especially if you’re looking for any remotely “ethnic” ingredient. Forget fresh lemongrass, bok choy, or enoki mushrooms; there are days when all the ginger, cilantro, and scallions are gone by the time we do our shopping.
We moved to Vermont, fully aware of what we were giving up in grocery and ethnic diversity. Still, I don’t think I realized how difficult life could feel at times when you’re separated from the comforting flavors of your childhood by a 90-minute drive instead of a short transit ride. Even when I made the trek, Asian markets in Burlington, Albany, and New Lebanon tend to be on the smaller side, often requiring multiple different shops just to scrape together a single hot pot night.
Then, about a year ago, a Korean friend visiting from Washington D.C. introduced me to Say Weee: an Asian grocery ecommerce delivery service that quickly revealed itself to be as useful as its name was ridiculous. Whether you live in a place where there are no Asian stores within a reasonable commute, or you’re searching for a specific Thai or Indian ingredient that the Korean-run H-Mart or Chinese Ranch 99 does not reliably carry, Say Weee makes ordering Asian groceries from any cuisine as easy as buying toilet paper on Amazon. With just a few days advance notice, I can have everything I need for a Sichuan hotpot for 8 people (including hot pot broth packets, thinly sliced meats, and exotic vegetables like fresh wood ear mushrooms and lotus root) delivered to my doorstep in a refrigerated box for under $100, including the $10 cold-pack fee.
The produce always tastes exceptionally fresh. This may have to do with the well-documented phenomenon that the vegetables in Asian markets are often sourced from smaller, more biodiverse farms than the distributor-intermediated fruits and veggies that make their way into most larger supermarkets. (If you haven’t tried Chinese celery, it is like the ultra-concentrated and flavorful version of the bland, pallid vegetable you find in a typical grocery produce aisle.) Say Weee’s other niche offerings that will dramatically improve your cooking include: organic Kikkoman soy sauce with the Japanese label and gold lid, aged black rice vinegar, unrefined rock sugar (for stews or just as a candy), and Hokkaido konbu.
Although the locally available selection of Asian ingredients has improved since I first arrived three years ago — gochujang, Lao Gan Ma chili crisp, and Shin Black Ramyun are now regularly available from Shaw’s international shelf — I don’t expect I’ll ever find preserved black beans or the Shao Hsing cooking sherry that forms the base of almost every Chinese seafood dish at a Vermont grocer near me anytime soon. But knowing that it’s all available through Say Weee anytime I need brings me a sense of ease that I hadn’t realized was previously missing.
Although my bathroom mirror remains the only place I can reliably expect to encounter an east-Asian face on any given day, being able to connect more easily with my roots in this important way has made a huge difference in my ability to see my town as a long-term home, not just a place that I happen to live in. It lets me easily share my food with friends in town, many of whom have spent their whole lives living in Vermont. It’s already gotten to the point where they’re asking how to make these dishes on their own. Maybe it’s only a matter of time until the area can support a dedicated Asian grocery store. Until then, this website is more than enough to tide me over.
Michael Zhao is a writer, editor, and strategist splitting time between Poultney, Vermont, and Brooklyn. His work explores raving, meditation, and the cultivation of presence and awareness in all its forms. His personal Substack is Craving/Aversion.
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