We have just moved to Savannah from Bloomington, IN. In Bloomington because of IU we had a very high Asian population and excellent Asian food. I have found two Vietnamese grocery stores, one on Waters and one on Eisenhower. The mainstream grocery stores, Kroger, Fresh Market and Publix have very little to offer. I did find lemon grass in Whole Paycheck. I needed a few fresh Thai chilies and had to buy a whole bagful in one of the Viet. stores, the other didn’t have any at all.
Does anyone have some places to recommend? I’m making a big batch of Cha Gio tomorrow with some of the oh so fresh Tybee Island shrimp. I found frozen banana leaves today and want to make some Banh La, Hue Rice Rolls in banana leaves, maybe I’ll need to get a banana plant and harvest my own. I can only find big cans of sugar cane, restaurant size and would like to find some in a smaller can or even better fresh sugar cane. I love the shrimp on sugar cane. It is such a treat. I guess I am going to be making lots of Vietnamese food, the climate here is perfect for it.
I would think with all of the seafood industry here we’d have more Vietnamese. I’m in communication with Andrea frequently. I have a good friend, Vietnamese, whose family has a shrimping business in Gulf Shores. She’s planning to visit and to cook toether.
I’m not so sure that shrimp fishing is done a lot in Vietnam. I know Thailand does a lot and of course there’s the scandal of the Vietnamese slaves they keep on their boats.
I was in Savannah for the holidays and I recall there were several Asian market’s…
With the great shrimp off Tybee island.
Love Savannah and the low country food, culture and hospitality.
As I said I have found two near us, Yelp has one downtown we are going to check in to. The weather is so unseasonably hot that te lightness of Asian cuisine, especially Vietnamese is just perfect.
Have you been to The Grey yet?
Food is quite good and hopefully the service has stepped its game up.
Really enjoyed Savannah and loved the stop over on the way to Sea Island, GA!
Not yet. It is on the list. We’ve been so busy unpacking and settling in that dining out has been at the bottom of the agenda. Our Realtor took us to The Vault. It was the old Citizens and Southern Bank (my parents banked there). It is sort of Pan-Asian. I had some great duck tacos. The weather has been so unseasonably hot that I am quite drawn to Vietnamese food, hence my question. We were quite spoiled in Bloomington with the large Asian student population it was pretty easy to get just about any Asian ingredient you wanted even in main stream grocery stores. I once saw a student with his parents in Kroger photographing all of the Asian vegetables in the produce department.
I was excited to learn over the weekend that Sean Brock is going to be opening a branch of Husk here next year. We’ve been to his Nashville, TN. restaurant and loved it.
I’ve been known to cook entire meals on the grill.