Fresh World El Grande Supermercado

I sort of found myself in Glen Burnie this morning, just before the torrential rains began. I stopped by the new Fresh World International El Grande Supermercado to see what the excitement was about and to compare it to perennial favourite H-Mart. The Fresh World is just off Route 100 and Ritchie Highway in an old Giant. It's HUGE!

As with H-Mart, the produce is very fresh and pretty inexpensive. What I like about HM is that almost nothing is wrapped in plastic, while at FW there's a lot. The place was spotless, but it's only been open a week, so I'd expect nothing less. There were workers everywhere, replenishing produce, straightening shelves and answering questions.

FW has lots of Asian market staples, including durian, bitter melons, lemon grass, banana flowers and pumpkins. Additionally, they have a whole section with fresh fish in tanks, and fresh cockles and conchs.They have a meat section, too, but it doesn't seem like they've got a butcher on premise. But they do have goat meat.

About halfway through the market, things take a jarring turn and it becomes a regular grocery store with Kellogg's cereal, Campbell's soups and Uncle Ben's rice. I took almost 70 photos, so I thought I'd share some with you.

Head-on shrimp Parrot juice - or condensed milk.
Sodas of every variety. I bought a little bottle of champagne cola. This is chestnut juice.

Pocky sticks for men

They even had a small housewares section where you could buy kitchen items, dishes and rice cookers, amongst much other stuff!

I am one of the most squeamish people alive and I thought these were plastic fish on a display. When I touched them, I found they were real. Real dead. Real dead fish.
They also had mixed nuts in the most extraordinary flavours: pecans with cranberries, black pepper and orange zest; cashews with pineapple, peanuts, lemongrass and chinese chili; pistachios with sesame seeds, pepitas, fig and harissa; and almonds with apple, flax seeds, date, balsamic vinegar and red pepper. The very funniest thing was hearing Aux Champs-Élysées, a French pop song that's at least 30 years old, playing on their sound system!