One Stop Shopping: Thai Supermarket Online Offers Convenience, Quality & Value
Written: Jul 29 '06 (Updated Jul 30 '06)
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There's times I've got a hankering for delicious Thai food but no suitable restaurant nearby to satisfy my Southeast Asian jones. And if there isn't always a helpful little Oriental market nearby, what's a gal to do?
ImportFood.com, Your Thai Supermarket
As close as your computer's monitor and a couple mouse clicks away, this easy to negotiate website features a good range of Thai, Lao and other Pacific Rim foods, spices, sauces, grains, flours and even fresh herbs such as Thai, or Holy Basil, Kaffir Lime, Galangal, Lemongrass, and those tiny but incendiary Thai birdseye chilies.
Quality rice steamers, both electric and funky but effective manual models, some really rockin' granite mortar and pestles, ($18.95 for the 6" size), and lovely Thai tableware beckon at low to moderate prices.
Authentic, kitchen-tested Thai recipes abound, for popular noodle and rice dishes, curries, satays, soups, salads and more, all helpfully linked to stocked ingredients, and visa versa.
I've made a total of 3 purchases thus far, and the shipping is some of the lowest I've found*, starting from a base of about $6.00 for UPS Ground shipment, plus every item is carefully wrapped and secured. Even large glass bottles of Healthy Boy Sweet Dark soy sauce and my favorite Mae Ploy Sweet Chili Sauce, survived the trials of modern transport unscathed. *For a medium-sized box, weighing about 7 lbs, the $7.50 shipping and handling charge seemed quite fair.
Shipment takes 3 to 5 business days, and each and ever order arrived with exactly what was ordered; no hateful substitutions, wrong or missing items. The couple of times I've needed to contact Customer Service-more for clarification, e.g. what kind of curry paste works better with what kind of meats, the response has been swift and at least reasonably spot on.
Now, my specialty pantry shelf is crowded with Red Onion, (shallot), Lemongrass and Galangal powders, Tapioca Flour, Fried "Shrimps" Crisps, Curry Pastes of every hue, luscious Mangosteen, Lychee, Rice Noodles, Thai Iced Tea mix, Thai sticky rice, Tra Chang Fish Sauce, Tom Ka and Tom Yum soup mixes, (packets for $1.29 each).
I've already bookmarked this site and have a wish list crammed with Indonesian specialties such as Kecap Manis and the firey Sambal Oelek, some more Laab-Namtok mix, Shrimp Paste, Palm Sugar, Tamarind Paste, Peanut Sauce, Jackfruit, Tapioca Bubble Tea mix and more.
Besides my beloved Mae Ploy Yellow Curry Paste, ($3.29), my new favorite would have to be the very convenient powdered Coconut Cream, ($3.89), so easy to reconstitute-as thick or thin as you'd like-to use as you would canned coconut milk, the base for many Thai curries and that screaming good spicy peanut/satay sauce.
All ingredients are very fresh, and the expiration date on the imported stuff is a year, and sometimes 2 years beyond purchase date-not something I have found with every online, much less, brick-and-mortar store.
With an easy to navigate and intelligently laid out store, over 145 authentic Thai and other Asian recipes to challenge your culinary skills, top brands like Hand, Healthy Boy, Knorr and the variety of goods and reasonable shipping, ImportFood.com has one more loyal and completely satisfied Foodie customer.
Recommended:
Yes
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kcfoxy
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Member: Casey Stewart
Location: West Coast Of Mars
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