BY KYLE MARIE McMAHON
As of 2022, nearly 14% of Wake County residents were born outside the U.S., and that number is increasing. Grocery stores with an international focus support individuals and families moving here from abroad, allowing them access to hard-to-find foods and produce from their countries of origin. They also offer opportunities for Western Wake locals unfamiliar with these regions to expand their horizons—to try something new and to create cultural connections within the community.
Here are a few popular, locally owned grocery stores with great international flavor.
Golden Hex European Groceries & Deli
1200 NW Maynard Road, Cary
goldenhex.com
Golden Hex carries nearly anything a prospective cook could need for preparing European dishes. The store’s large, bright space is clean and polished. The price tags include the flag and name of the country from which the item was imported, including countries such as Ukraine, Poland, Bulgaria, Belarus, Georgia, Armenia and Moldova. Once focused on Eastern European foods, Golden Hex has expanded, and shoppers also can now find foods from Western European countries, including France, Italy, Germany, Spain and Portugal, among others.
Those looking to cook can find a variety of ingredients—from caviar and canned and smoked fish to pickled vegetables, sauces, grains, baking ingredients and more. The store offers some fresh produce, but the deli counter is where it really shines, with its ample offering of sliced meats.
The store also has a small housewares selection, including pots and seeds. For those new to particular types of European cuisine, Golden Hex offers many prepackaged meals. But consider visiting the fresh foods area, which includes a hot/cold bar that varies in its offerings. Examples of the rotating selection include solyanka (a thick and sour soup), blintzes and pickled vegetables.
Nearby, you can get mini pancakes (sirniki) and dumplings (pelmeni) by the pound to take home and cook. The dessert counter includes several cakes available to order by the pound, with flavors such as plum and honey. The store also offers a pleasant seating area to enjoy your selections.
Grand Asia Market
1253 Buck Jones Road, Raleigh
grandasiamarket.com
Grand Asia Market provides ingredients for a wide swath of cuisines across East Asia, including China, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and more. The store is open and vibrantly decorated, so while it has a traditional grocery store feel, shopping there also feels warm and welcoming.
The signs above the aisles guide visitors toward ingredients like rice, sauces, seeds, snacks, spices, meats and tofu. The large housewares selection includes rice cookers, bowls and decorations. The produce section offers a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, from bok choy and mushrooms to fuzzy squash and eddo root. The fresh seafood section is expansive, and the staff professionally cleans and cuts your selections while you shop.
Those not looking to cook can get food from the hot bar, like salted duck or dumplings. Repeat customers also say the bakery is not to be missed. Try a variety of savory or slightly sweet buns, pudding cake and cookies, and wash them down with a boba tea.
Bombay Central
10966 Chapel Hill Road, Morrisville
bombaycentralnc.com
From staple foods such as rava (semolina flour), lentils, beans and poha (flattened rice) to ghee, pickles, sauces and spices, Bombay Central offers anything a chef is likely to need to cook an authentic Indian dish, including the pans in which to cook them.
Prepackaged meals and snack foods such as fryums, a potato starch and sago-based treat, are also available in this ample store. Bombay Central offers a large selection of fruits and vegetables, including herbs like cilantro, curry and bitter melon. The meat counter has a halal butcher featuring different cuts of beef, chicken and goat, including soup bones.
The cafe offers a bright and welcoming dining area in which to enjoy a meal. With both regular and vegetarian options, the menu offers a lot to choose from, but repeat customers suggest the vada pav sandwiches, which are made with fried potato dumplings. Follow the meal up with a fresh dessert like gulab jamun—fried sweets made of a milk product called khoya mixed with flour and soaked in a sweet, spiced syrup. You might also enjoy a glass of fresh sugarcane juice.
La Bonita Tienda y Carniceria
836 E. Chatham Street, Cary
facebook.com/labonitacary
A Mexican-focused market, La Bonita is a one-stop shop for Hispanic cuisine. Pick up staples like beans, sauces and spices, and then visit the produce section for tomatoes, peppers and more unique ingredients like nopales (cacti) and savila (aloe vera). A butcher shop as well as a grocery store, La Bonita boasts a large meat counter and an ample queso selection.
The store offers a wide variety of freshly prepared foods to try, including pupusas, wings, tamales and salsa. Customers rave about the fresh corn tortillas, which you can either eat in-house or purchase for your dinner at home. For a sweet treat, choose among the many cookies or grab a slice of tres leches cake.
Cary African & Caribbean Market
1435 SE Maynard Road, Cary
caryafricancaribbean.market
While Cary African & Caribbean Market is smaller than the others on this list, it offers a great selection of ingredients specific to African and Caribbean regions, such as ugali flour, soursop and a variety of spices. The store has a fresh meat counter and small produce section, which carries ingredients like jute leaves, yuca and yams. There is no hot meal option, but they offer prepackaged meals and snacks, and also fresh kenkay (steamed, fermented corn dough wrapped in corn husks, native to Ghana).
Shoppers should also note that, while Cary’s popular Asian supermarket H Mart is a national chain, it contracts with local vendors for prepared food outlets housed within the store, so it’s a great place to try international foods from many local chefs.
While customers from outside these supermarkets’ cultures may encounter language barriers at some of these shops—either in the lack of translation on the packaging or the unfamiliar food names—the experience provides a chance to step outside traditional American grocery stores and learn about the wide variety of food options available in Western Wake.
Check out stories from around the Western Wake at 5westmag.com.
