Grand Mart, the name says it all.

Grand Mart is not exactly Chinatown, but the sights and sounds of the Asian supermarket give you a flavor of the things you're missing by shopping at Giant or Safeway. It has such a large agora of fruits and vegetables that I don't know where to start. For example, Grand Mart sells something called daikon at 59 cents a pound. I'd never heard of daikon, but according to a Wikopedia daikon literally means "white carrot" and is a mild-flavored giant white radish. Other spectacles at Grand Mart include dandelion at 99 cents a pound and chicory, which runs at $1.29 a pound. Yellow peaches were 79 cents a pound and not over-ripe, like I sometimes see at your average DC area market. The Asian market also has five types of mushrooms, some of which remind me of that part of Lord of the Rings when Frodo Baggins and company happen upon a large fungi jungle. I wouldn't touch mushrooms with a 10-foot pole but they run around $1.50 a pound, depending on the type you happen to buy. Asparagus are still expensive: $4.29 a pound.

I'm a Connecticut Yankee so I'm used to getting fresh green and red peppers from the local supermarket. I've had a hard time finding that in Arlington, Va. No problems at Grand Mart, and it's cheap too. Green peppers were 59 cents a pound. Red peppers were 99 cents a pound. And they’re fresh.

Though I love Indian food, I wasn't impressed with the Asian market's Indian section. It had a lot of spices but not the canned delicacies you find in Giant at prices that make you say "Oh my God ... I'm going to need to take out a second mortgage to afford these samosas." Nevertheless, I was pleased with Grand Mart's alcohol section. Instead of just wines and beers, it also had a whole shelf of sake. At $5.99 I got a bottle of sake called Bek Se Ju. I don't know what it is but I'm eager to try it out.

Grand Mart does have its drawbacks though. Most of the staff doesn’t speak English well. I got by using Spanish with some of the stock staff. But that didn't help me with most of the rest, whose native tongues are languages like Japanese, Chinese and Korean, who had a hard time understanding what I wanted when I asked for ginger ale. I eventually found it after asking the only English-speaker on the staff I could find.

You'll also be out of luck finding some basic things that Americans can't get by with. They don't sell Liquid Drano. I don't think they have veggie burgers either. But with the high quality beef, chicken and other meats they offer you hardly need veggie burgers. Unless, of course, you're a vegetarian. If you are, you'll just have to go to Giant for that.

Grand Mart is located at 6326 Arlington Boulevard in Falls Church, at the corner of Route 7 and Route 50. It's not near a metro so if you don't have a car, find a friend to drive you. I'm saving $60 a month and getting fresher produce by going to Grand Mart. You'll be glad you went too.

This post is by Guest Blogger Jay D. Krasnow from www.hyperactivestyle.com.
Thanks Jay!