Is it just me, or are the mainstream groceries not stocking beansprouts, either packaged or loose, any more? None at the downtown Ralphs’ (even tho they’ve got an “Asian Produce” section, with fresh turmeric, for God’s sake!) none at the Von’s at Virgil and Sunset. These used to be in every supermarket store I went to; what’s going on?
You’re around Virgil and Sunset and you have an issue getting to a Korean market? Something’s not adding up! 
IIRC a few years ago there was a problem with toxic sprouts so the big chains quit carrying them. @Nemroz is right though. The Korean market I go to has huge bags of them for cheap.
They weren’t toxic; they were contaminated with pathogenic bacteria. Sprouts need warmth and humidity to grow, which is also the ideal environment for bacteria.
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I know I can get’em at Korean mkts., or even at A-ASIAN, but that’s not necessarily convenient, if I’m downtown at 9:00 pm on a Sunday…
and they also create a perfect little water filled cocoon for them to stay alive inside of and usually consumed raw… so that’s why pregnant women are told to avoid them.
DT WF will have it
Ralph’s stopped carrying fresh ones for liability reasons. Same for alfalfa sprouts. They do sometimes have canned beansprouts (oddly, often the cans are dented). Von’s generally has them, but you have to ask where.
In that case, go to the Japanese market in the mall at Third and Alameda.
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Maybe Grow DTLA and the Urban Radish? Both are open until 10pm.
KInda what I figured. I detoured to A-Asian, where they have 'em in packages. Just have to plan more in advance. (Ugggh. CANNED bean sprouts…reminds me of when we first moved to Ohio in 1967, and the only “Asian food” to be had in most markets was LaChoy canned chopped suey…)
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Korean markets are a good place to get bean sprouts since there’s excellent turnover.
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I can get them at the two Von’s markets close to me in Pasadena, but never Ralphs. I think that liability thing might be why I can no longer find them in bulk, even at the Asian markets, so I buy the bag and wind up throwing out half of them. Or make a giant batch of Pad Thai or whatever … WFoods has them too, in small bags for large(ish) money, surprise surprise.
Of course the EASY way would be to buy a bunch of mung beans and sprout your own. A whole lot cheaper and you’d know what they’ve been grown in and who’s handled them. You know, beans need no encouragement whatsoever to sprout and grow. I threw out some semi-icky sprouts in my sorta open compost thing out back and had a nice crop with pods and all in a week or two!
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That’s an excellent idea, @nashwill! Maangchi has two video tutorials on growing your own bean sprouts:
