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It’s called songpyeon: a small, elegant rice cake. Its chewy dough hides sweet fillings and perhaps even sweeter memories.
Gary Chen remembers how grateful one of his shoppers at the Asian supermarket was when he got her Korean rice cakes.
“When we have something that reminds them of home, customers really get excited about it,” says Chen, general manager of Asian Supermarket.
Shaped like small crescents, songpyeon is filled with red bean or chestnut paste and steamed over pine needles. It’s a culinary sign of respect during the fall harvest festival, Chuseok.
And it almost always feels like the holidays at the Florida Boulevard store.
The inventory, which includes about 20,000 items from Vietnam, Japan, the Philippines, China, Korea, Thailand, Singapore and other Asian countries, changes to accommodate seasonal traditions.
It’s mid-September afternoon and the shop is selling the last of the pile of mooncakes it stocked up on for the Chinese harvest festival, the Mid-Autumn Festival.
Walking through the store, Chen clutches a cordless landline. He answers midway, switching quickly from English to his native Mandarin. He also speaks some Korean, Japanese and Vietnamese.
“I’m always learning about different cultures so I can talk to our customers,” he says.
Asian Supermarket started in Lafayette in 2009, expanding to Baton Rouge in 2017. Chen’s uncle, Xian Zhong, runs the Lafayette store. His cousin, Yuki Chen, owns the Baton Rouge location and Asian Seafood House, a restaurant in the same shopping center. It is famous for its dim sum and hot pot.
Chen walks down the snack aisle, pulling a salmon-colored Lay’s bag off the shelf. The spicy version with crab from China is a big hit among the store’s more than 50 varieties of chips.
A cash register near the front of the store is filled with pastries from Taiwan’s popular 85°C Bakery Cafe. And in the ramen section, Chen points out a carbonara flavor. Both are a lure for the TikTok crowd.
In the back of the store, bubbles buzz in large aquariums, temporary homes for live fish and crustaceans. Long, slender eels seem to peer through the glass. The best-selling blue crabs in the market move in large crates.
Chen sneaks into the produce aisles, sifting through buckets of bitter melon and durian. He scoops up a round purple mangosteen. Depending on the season, it can reach from 10 to 16 dollars per pound – the most expensive fruit on the market.
And there are more rarities in store, items that Chen says are hard to find elsewhere.
“We want to bring local dishes back to families,” he says, “while giving American shoppers something new to discover.”
Supporters come in and out. Most walk around for a few minutes before tucking their stash into the till.
But the grocery bags they bring home contain the key ingredients for holiday spreads or special meals — and memories to last a lifetime.
10655 Florida Blvd.
2216 N. Sherwood Forest Drive
3869 Government St.
240 Capitol St., Denham Springs
11244 Florida Blvd.
8342 Perkins Road
13461 Tiger Bend Road
10655 Florida Blvd.
11802 Coursey Blvd.
1134 Marque Ann Drive
8129 Florida Blvd.
4343 S. Sherwood Forest Blvd., C.
12812 Coursey Blvd.
162 Lee Drive
12351 Florida Blvd.
Bravitos Market40235 La. Highway 42, Suite A, Prairieville
10979 Coursey Blvd., Suite H
1817 S. Sherwood Forest Blvd.
9301 Burbank Drive
11435 Florida Blvd.
7034 Siegen Lane
648 W. La. Highway 30, B., Gonzales
7981 Florida Blvd.
1308 Florida Ave. SW, Denham Springs
14414 La. Highway 44, Gonzales
10449 Airline Highway
6001 Siegen Lane
9656 Burbank Drive
13869 Florida Blvd.
Know of an international store we missed? Tell us at [email protected].
This article was originally published in the November 2024 issue 225 Magazine.
