Asian Foodie Paradise: Pittsburgh’s Strip District
Spent a Saturday morning recently in Pittsburgh’s Strip District. It’s located in an area of the city that can’t exactly be called “beautiful”; however, major plans are in place to completely renovate and revitalize it within the next few years. Ultimately, the goal is to turn the area into a public open-air-style market with an international flavor, which hopefully will attract shoppers and tourists alike. But even now that the improvements haven’t been made, The Strip has much to offer foodies like me. Asian grocers, bakers and various artisans can be found in this half-square-mile area and I could easily have spent a day there or two. A list of Strip District vendors can be found here.
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POSTED IN: Where To Buy Asian Food
3 opinions for Asian Foodie Paradise: Pittsburgh’s Strip District
Eric Belcastro
Dec 18, 2007 at 1:00 pm
You know, I get kind of frustrated to see on the major strip-district websites constant mention and listings of all of the grocery stores and restaurants, and yet they seem to leave out all of the wonderful Asian places (with the exception of Sushi Kim) every time. What’s up with that?!
PokerCat
Apr 29, 2008 at 9:42 am
Ya, this is a old post I cam commenting on, but it turned up in a google for Chinese grocery stores in Pittsburgh.
First, there is no “Chinatown” in Pittsburgh (which is very sad), so the best you are going to do is the Strip.
Second, the list from the Strip web site has neither of the Chinese groceries listed.
Third, Yes, I said neither, meaning there are only two. Like in one, two, that’s it. Also sad. It is pretty much the sum total of all Chinese groceries for Pittsburgh not just the strip too.
So, in case you are still interested the two groceries are “new” Sam Bok, which has been there forever, is very small, smells, and not well lit, and Lotus Foods which is at least triple the size of SB, and pretty modern.
Finally, your best bet for ethnic ingredients in PIT is either Penzeys, or one of handful of medium sized asian Indian grocers.
Here is a better list of ethnic grocers, but it has not been maintained since ‘98. Then again, not much changes here.
http://dinnercoop.cs.cmu.edu/dinnercoop/stores/pgh.html
One of the four mediocre Vietnamese restaurants in Pittsburgh is in the Strip. My Ngoc, also not listed on the Strip web site. They are the only place in Pittsburgh that serves something like a bánh mì. Like most ethnic food in Pittsburgh, it has been Yinzered up until it is bland and incipient.
Eric Belcastro
Apr 30, 2008 at 11:08 am
Thank you forthe recomendations.
And yes, I do sometimes roll my eyes when going into a Chinese or Vietnamese restaurant or an Indian restaurant and the most common thing to hear is everyone asking for thier food to not be spicy. And when you do ask for it to be very spicy, they assume that you mean - very much so not spicy. I don’t know why dumping 6 lbs. of sugar in an entree is something that is so widespread in Asian restaurants as well, because they certainly don’t do that in their own countries. I think the people that like it that way have messed it up for the rest of us that want to eat something real.
Well, there really are some lovely restaurants scattered about in Pittsburgh, and I hope I haven’t complained too much. Just had to vent. Thanks again for the recommendation.
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