Golden Pacific - best pan-ethnic Asian market in Chicago?

I stopped into this store for the first time last night and it's now at the top of my Asian grocery store list. I know it lacks the stinky grunge that many like to experience in Asian grocery stores, but after seeing small cockroaches crawling all over the scale at my usual Asian market, I'm now going to the ridiculously clean Golden Pacific as much as possible.

On our way back from Moody's, I was able to pick up ingredients for Chow Fun, California rolls (stop groaning), natto, Ma-Po Tofu, my favorite Korean popsicles, basil seed drinks, and frozen Paratha to enjoy with my Trader Joes Indian food packets. And this was what I could find in the 10 minutes that I was allotted by my time-miserly, grocery-store-hater boyfriend. I love the one-stop shopping aspect -- this is exactly what I need to avoid driving to different parts of town. Plus, the butter I threw in my basket for convenience (and which I assumed would be quite expensive) was only $2.80 --normally almost $4 at Cub and Dominicks.

Please patronize this great store so I can keep going. While I question the business sense of displaying the largest selection of endless rows of sparkling clean refrigerated Asian beverages I've ever seen in my entire life (this must cost them a bundle in electricity) -- more power to them. The guy at the front is great -- really helpful, friendly, wants to find you the best ingredients and to make sure you get what you need. Ask tons of question if you so wish -- the guy at the front (an ethnic Chinese guy from Laos) is a man of endless good cheer. Anyone know of other very pan-ethnic Asian markets? The Paratha put it over the top for me.


Golden Pacific
5353 N Broadway St
Chicago, IL 60640

I am totally with you on everything, even the good cheer of the guy at the front. This place is fantastic, and should be way more popular than it is.

[Incidentally, here is a link to another largely gushing thread about this place.]

Yes, GP is awesome!

I go at least a couple of times a month with my (time-miserly, grocery-store-hater) girlfriend. On Sundays they hand out samples (usually of dumplings or deliciously bad-for-you fried things) by the door.

Also, they get bonus points for the comically small shopping carts!

My last few trips to GP, I've been noticing that their collection of prepared foods gets more and more extensive (a la PNA, Thai Grocery in the past, but better). Today I picked up a little make-your-own Miang Kam kit with toasted coconut, dried shrimp, ginger, onions, peanuts, greens (hard to i.d. b/c it was cut into squares) and sauce. For $5, we made about 15 packets up for lunch. They also had Thai fried chicken, mee-krop and an whole array of sweets and dumplings. They still have Kaffir lime leaves as well.

I love the prepared foods they have next to the cash registers. Yesterday, I picked up a container of kanom jim (fresh rice noodles) with chicken curry (well, it turned out to be mostly chicken feet). I avoided the feet, the rest was delicious. Last week, they had freshly made Nam Prik Pao (Thai chile jam). I know it's immodest to say so, but it wasn't nearly as good as the stuff we make at home out of the David Thompson cookbook. Still, that stuff is rather labor intensive and I'm happy to have another source to use in a pinch. The Lao gentleman who runs the store is the most engaging, helpful person. No matter what recipe I ask him about, he always seems to know the answer.

Homemade Nam Prik Pao





Golden Pacific Nam Prik Pao

I haven't been in Golden Pacific in some time (I was always put off by the pre-shrink wrapped veggies), but looks like I need a return visit - did anyone notice if they have the green nam prik available, I've been looking for a replacement ever since thai grocery closed it's doors

zim wrote:I haven't been in Golden Pacific in some time (I was always put off by the pre-shrink wrapped veggies), but looks like I need a return visit - did anyone notice if they have the green nam prik available, I've been looking for a replacement ever since thai grocery closed it's doors

I didn't see any but I wouldn't be surprised if you could coax them into making it/finding it.

Also wanted to add, labne mixed with nam prik pao makes a kick&(^*$ chip dip.

They had kanom krok and karii puffs at Golden Pacific this weekend. They also had sticky rice with mango (and lots of other prepared foods--dried beef, fried chicken and fish) but I didn't get any. The kanom krok are definitely better fresh out of the pan/homemade. Still, they improved quite a bit with heating.


The karii puffs (with a potato filling that was slightly sweet) were good, though they had lost a little of their flakiness. I should have crisped them up in the oven.



Golden Pacific is such a great store--I find new things to buy every time I go.

I hadn't paid attention to this thread because I wasn't a fan of GP when it opened -- a little sterile and limited when it opened, though I did like the odd selection of Balkan foods (a nod to newer arrivals in the neighborhood) amongst the East Asian stuff. But this looks great and reminds me of something I forgot to post -- when Thai Grocery was closing I had a nice talk with the retiring owner (great guy). He told me that most of the fresh and prepared stuff, in addition to items his importing company would continue to bring in from Thailand, would be moving to GP. It's nice to see that it happened. My personal favorites at Thai Grocery (one of my top 3-4 corner grocieries in Chicago) were the house-made naem and Issan sausage. The steam table curries were nice too. Do they have such things at GP as well? It seems like the answer is "no" -- no refrigerated fresh meats or steam table takeout -- though I hope I'm wrong. In any event, the room temp prepared stuff is also great to see. The ladies who make the puffs and pastries also made a mean nam prik num that was not refrigerated and us. out with the sweets at Thai Grocery. Let me know if you see it. Thanks for the updates.

JeffB wrote:My personal favorites at Thai Grocery (one of my top 3-4 corner grocieries in Chicago) were the house-made naem and Issan sausage. The steam table curries were nice too. Do they have such things at GP as well? It seems like the answer is "no" -- no refrigerated fresh meats or steam table takeout -- though I hope I'm wrong. In any event, the room temp prepared stuff is also great to see. The ladies who make the puffs and pastries also made a mean nam prik num that was not refrigerated and us. out with the sweets at Thai Grocery.

About a month ago when I was at Golden Pacific, I asked about the ingredients in one of the kanom jin dishes and the very accommodating proprietor went next store to the Sa Bai Dee building to ask about it for me. So it seems like some of the dishes are coming out of that kitchen (though I didn't ask specifically). They don't have steam tables but there is definitely an expanding variety of prepared foods--new things every time I go. I'm not sure if the puffs are made there or by the same ladies who made/make them for Thai Grocery and PNA. But it might be worth asking if they could make or order the specific items you are looking for.

JeffB wrote: My personal favorites at Thai Grocery (one of my top 3-4 corner grocieries in Chicago) were the house-made naem and Issan sausage.

I would love to find a source for naem but I haven't seen any at GP.

JeffB wrote:The ladies who make the puffs and pastries also made a mean nam prik num that was not refrigerated and us. out with the sweets at Thai Grocery. Let me know if you see it.

zim wrote:did anyone notice if they have the green nam prik available

They had nam prik nam (not sure if there is eggplant in it but lots of green chiles and garlic) when I was there yesterday--not sure if it was the same stuff. I tasted a bit of it today--put some hair on my chest...great flavor.

Thanks. That namprik looks chunkier than what I remember and is missing the charred eggplant bits. But those garlic cloves look good. Most of the viet places have naem in some form, but I really preferred the extra-pungent Thai Grocery version, which was in loaf form, had Thai chiles running through it and had softer, smaller bits of pig skin integrated. I'm less enthusiastic about many of the link-style Vietnamese versions that tend to have long strips of skin evocative of beads of silicone caulk.

zim wrote:I haven't been in Golden Pacific in some time (I was always put off by the pre-shrink wrapped veggies), but looks like I need a return visit - did anyone notice if they have the green nam prik available, I've been looking for a replacement ever since thai grocery closed it's doors

I found some nam prik num at PNA, looks much closer to the thai grocery version than that pictured above from golden pacific - less chunky, more charred bits.

I found nam phrik noom and nam phrik ong (nam phrik noom's "red" cousin) all over Chiang Mai . . . found in Bangkok too, but not as much. They were always served with a plate of vegetables and pork rinds for dipping. Below are a couple of pictures of nam phrik noom I had in Chiang Mai (the top one is also shown in this thread). Some were chunkier than others - likely just a matter of preference.

I definitely love Golden Pacific, mostly because it is truly PAN-ethnic Asian. There are loads of places along that stretch of Broadway that have a wider selection of Vietnamese, Thai or Cambodian products, but none also combine that with a solid selection of Japanese and Korean ingredients. It serves as a one stop shopping place for me for all regions of of Asian cuisine.

I was very excited to find tua nao (dried fermented bean discs), an ingredient that I previously seen only in northern Thailand, at Golden Pacific this week. I plan to use them to make Nam Prik Ong; I've made this several times in the past but I've never been able to find this key ingredient. Naomi Duguidhas a recipe for making them in her Burma cookbook--I tried fermenting the beans at home but they got kind of moldy. I also find that Golden Pacific is the most reliable spot to get kaphrao/holy basil.

Tua Nao in Soppong, Thailand



Tua Nao from GP


Gai Kaphrao

thaiobsessed wrote:I was very excited to find tua nao (dried fermented bean discs), an ingredient that I previously seen only in northern Thailand, at Golden Pacific this week.

Thanks for mentioning your sighting of this hard-to-find ingredient; I didn’t realize tua nao was available in Chicago. Inspired by Naomi Duguid’s great Burma book, I recently decided I needed tua nao and a friend kindly brought me a packet from his trip to Fort Wayne.



Fort Wayne has a very large Burmese population and a network of excellent markets—great sources for Burmese and Northern Thai ingredients that are difficult to find in Chicago. I hope to post more about the Burmese scene in Fort Wayne. It’s not all sliders and Coneys in the Summit City.

As an fyi, Golden Pacific is undergoing some interior renovation/modernization, and of course, waiting on city approval of some plans (delays, delays they tell me). In any event, the selection of fresh produce is extremely minimal so if you're looking for fresh produce right now, you would be better served going elsewhere (I hope someone posts as the project gets completed). Everything else is just as plentiful as always, with the best assistance of any Asian market in town. I look forward to their improved produce area when completed.

Went by today and the entire store was closed for remodeling (according to the sign). I hope they reopen soon!

bon2mic wrote:Went by today and the entire store was closed for remodeling (according to the sign). I hope they reopen soon!

What time were you there? I was there yesterday at about 2:30pm. It was open and I bought quite a bit of stuff there . . . just not produce as I mentioned in my previous post.

BR wrote: What time were you there? I was there yesterday at about 2:30pm. It was open and I bought quite a bit of stuff there . . . just not produce as I mentioned in my previous post.

I miswrote in my first post - we went there on Saturday at about noon. The windows were fully covered in paper and there were signs on the doors/windows that they were closed for remodeling and where deliveries should be taken. I didn't realize you had gone the day you wrote your original post. That's totally odd that it was open a couple of hours later.

Google lists Golden Pacific as permanently closed and the phone number no longer works...I haven't been up that way for a while so can't drive by to see what's going on. Anybody else been there? This is our favorite store in that area so I'm really sad to see it go!

bon2mic wrote:Google lists Golden Pacific as permanently closed and the phone number no longer works...I haven't been up that way for a while so can't drive by to see what's going on. Anybody else been there? This is our favorite store in that area so I'm really sad to see it go!

That seriously bums me out because I feel as if I was late to discover them in the first place!

chgoeditor wrote:

bon2mic wrote:Google lists Golden Pacific as permanently closed and the phone number no longer works...I haven't been up that way for a while so can't drive by to see what's going on. Anybody else been there? This is our favorite store in that area so I'm really sad to see it go!

That seriously bums me out because I feel as if I was late to discover them in the first place!

Shame

Hold on a sec. Maybe it's closed; maybe it's not. As I noted, the owner told me a couple of months ago that he was planning on remodeling and was just waiting on approval. I was there Saturday and they had the below sign on the door. I called the phone number (very similar but slightly different than phone number listed for the business) but nobody answered. Also, I didn't look in the window to see what was going on construction-wise, but I'm not convinced that they are permanently closed.

I just called the phone number in the picture and a woman answered. I asked if the store was going to reopen and she said, "We haven't decided yet." I didn't ask what was going on but said that I hope it does!

still closed with no building/remodeling activity that I could tell when I passed by the other day