International flavors featured in ‘giant box’

Max Jacobson

Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2000 | 8:40 a.m.

Imagine a Costco where virtually the entire inventory is devoted to foods from around the world, and you have International Marketplace.

The giant box, which resembles a huge warehouse, is 70,000 square feet of good eats, and stocks more than 30,000 specialty items in all. In addition to foods, there are nonfood items such as beauty products, appliances, carpets and sundries. It is truly a unique market, located at 5000 S. Decatur Blvd. Store hours are 8 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Saturday, 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday.

The reason the market has landed in the spotlight right now is simple. It has finally begun to live up to the name. Now it is truly international.

Owners Peter and Joyce Kwan started their business as a Chinese market called Kwong Yet Lung on Charleston Boulevard in 1980. They acquired their current location in 1997, but their market was then almost completely Asian, featuring a wide variety of imported products from all over that continent, and catering to a predominantly Asian-American clientele.

But today it's different. The breakdown of inventory is about 60 percent Asian food products and 40 percent European, with shelf after shelf stocked with specialty foods from countries such as Holland, Great Britain, Italy, Greece and Lebanon, to name just a few. Says Joyce Kwan: "We want to introduce people to all different types of foods at an affordable price."

And that's exactly what she is doing. "Vegas is a huge melting pot," she continues, "so we've gradually changed our product mix. I'm constantly sourcing vendors and importers from around the world. People travel more now, and they come into contact with foods they like in other countries. The only reason I stuck with Asian foods for so long was because I was familiar with the product."

So now you are just as likely to see people of European and African descent in here as Asian-Americans, and people of all backgrounds shopping for a diversity of foods. In the parking lot, an Asian man was pushing a shopping cart containing a 50-pound bag of rice, along with a 3-liter container of extra virgin olive oil. Inside the store, a Brazilian woman was stocking up on tofu and pickles in the market's huge Japanese food section.

One place to begin a tour of this market is in the extensive fish section. It is comprised of various live tanks, an iced section where whole fish are sold, and a refrigerator case containing wrapped fish filets. Once the section was in disarray, but now it appears to be better organized. On one visit, employees were seen icing whole fish in an exposed case, after ice had slid off them.

Manager Eric Brandin claims his department undersells typical supermarkets in town by between 30 and 40 percent. The prices on these whole fish can be astonishingly low. Butterfish, popular in Japanese restaurants, are $1.79 a pound. The more expensive striped bass are still only $3.99 per pound, and the prices for live Dungeness crab, $4.99 per pound, and live Maine lobster, $9.99 per pound, are among the lowest in the city.

You could get lost just in the European section. Here are items such as sesame crusted pretzels from Israel, plum puddings from Great Britain, Dutch peppermints, dozens of Swiss, Austrian and German chocolates, marinated vegetables from Hungary, even a mineral water called Borjomi from the former Soviet republic of Georgia.

The Italian section is loaded with pastas, cookies, sauces, bottled anchovies, cheeses, olive oils and vinegars. That 3-liter can of extra virgin oil is $11.99, an almost unheard of price. A 1 kilo wheel of pecorino fresco, a pungent type of sheep's cheese, is $24.99.

Next to Italy there is England, pure shortbreads, jams, condiments, the full line of McVittie's Digestive Biscuits, and much more. In the Dutch section there is an array of foods designed for the preparation of Indonesian food, which the Dutch love, plus ginger cake from Holland's Friesland province, and hundreds of other items.

International Marketplace has as much Middle Eastern inventory as any of our city's Mediterranean markets, products from Greece, Lebanon and the Arab countries. There is a South American section, too, filled with items that even an experienced food journalist like me doesn't recognize.

Between the European section and the larger Asian section there is an abundant produce department, with more surprises. Here one finds exotic fare like chayote squash, jicama, banana blossoms from Vietnam, and blocks of peeled taro root, all wrapped tightly in plastic. In season, late summer and early fall, the market carries the notorious durian. Off season, the famously odiferous fruit is sold in the market's frozen food case.

The selection of Asian foods is just plain unbelievable. Every conceivable noodle seems to be in stock, not to mention the condiments and sauces to put on them. There is oyster sauce from China, dozens of chili sauce, and a huge spice rack.

Japanese snacks, rice crackers and canned goods are sold, as well as dozens of types of tofu, dried fish, marinated fish and frozen fish. Indian cuisine is represented as well. This is a good store to buy chutneys, spice pastes, even frozen Indian boil-in-the-bag meals such as aloo gobi, a spiced cauliflower and potato dish.

Almost every Asian country is represented, and if you can't find what you are looking for, then Joyce Kwan will attempt to order it for you. Even though she has three young children, her long term goal is to open more of these markets in other major cities. This is one busy lady.

We shouldn't forget the nonfood items, either. If you are looking for a Zojirushi rice cooker, sushi mats, woks, bamboo steamers or even, for that matter, Christmas decorations, which take up a big aisle of the store, this is a good place to buy them.

Like Costco, International Marketplace is a membership store, but unlike it, nonmembers can shop here. There is a $10 membership fee, and the main benefit from that is a 5 percent discount against the in-store price for all merchandise, which seems like a bargain.