Asian markets – from strip malls to mega stores | Meanderings by Mindy Stern

Published 5:30 am Saturday, May 23, 2026

When husband and wife Taiwanese immigrants, Cindy and Jack Lee opened a supermarket in Vancouver, B.C. in 1993, their vision was to create “an Asian version of Safeway.” They named it in honor of their young daughters, Tina and Tiffany. T&T Supermarket became a mega hit, a destination for Asian shoppers from Canada and the U.S. seeking fresh, frozen, boxed, and canned food items not found at mainstream grocers who’d never heard of lemongrass, galangal, or lime leaves.

Food connects us to our past – tastes we grew up with, and acquired tastes accumulated through travel and other life experiences. Growing up in Brooklyn, N.Y., with first generation Chinese friends, I was exposed to Chinese delicacies. Today, sushi is part of my regular diet, though I never tasted it until moving to the Pacific Northwest. Our International District is so-named because it was home to Japanese and Filipino as well as Chinese families. Waves of Vietnamese, Thai, Cambodian, and Laotian immigrants further influenced our region’s food culture. T&T Supermarket provides one-stop-shopping for pan-Asian customers and adventurous eaters from all cultures.

In December, 2024, T&T’s first U.S. store opened in Bellevue’s Factoria Mall. Through Christmas, New Year’s and Chinese New Year, shoppers formed lines stretching all around the block, waiting to get in. Today, those outside lines are gone, but the 76,000 sq ft store is packed with customers and an excited buzz adds to the sensory experience.

After peeking inside on my first foray, I realized some guidance was needed, so I called Evelyn Fang, MD, a Mercer Island resident who formerly directed the Center for Primary Care Practice and Education in Beijing, China. I lived with Evelyn’s family for a month in 2016, while I taught Chinese doctors how to improve their bedside manner. I invited Evelyn to orient me through the store’s aisles, then treat her to lunch.

“What do you think is the big draw for most shoppers here?” I asked. Evelyn was unequivocal in her answer. “The fresh produce.” Indeed, that section was packed with an array of super fresh, competitively priced items. Spiky, odd-shaped Durian fruits, a Southeast Asian delicacy, were piled high next to a scale. Bundles of pea shoots, bok choy, mangoes, dragon fruit, at least eight kinds of mushrooms, broccoli crowns, and more tempted me. My heart leapt when I spotted branzino in the fish section, with three options for cleaning and preparation, each with a number to facilitate communication with the fishmongers, who may not speak English. #1: scaled and gutted, leaving the head and tail on, #2: filleted, #3: cut into steaks or chunks.

The bakery department sells Portuguese egg tarts, purple ube pastries, and cakes of every size, color and shape. In the frozen section, Black Sesame ice cream sits next to lava mochi puffs. People line up to self-serve hot soy milk.

In the Beauty aisle, we saw hand masks to slip on for twenty minutes, rendering your mitts as soft as silk. Face masks with ingredients like jelly fish and luminous pearl are sold for home facials. The choices are endless.

It was time for lunch in T&T’s food court, which features a cart making Jianbing, a savory buckwheat crepe filled with egg, cilantro, and scallions, topped with crispy crackers, and folded into a paper wrapper. This took me back to Beijing where I’d walk to work on bitingly cold January mornings. A hot Jianbing made by a street vendor would warm my tummy and my soul. Here was a food memory to savor.

Seattle is home to several big, successful Asian stores. Uwajimaya has been going strong since 1945; H Mart arrived in 2015. Asian Family Market, and 99 Ranch Market recently joined the scene. But just as Amazon disrupted retail, mom and pop shops like TOFU 101, in a strip mall on Factoria Boulevard, are losing customers to the mega-store across the street even though their soy milk is more delicate than T&T’s. In the same plaza, Regent Cakes and Bakery’s unique pastries include light-as-air coffee muffins and cheese cake in a tiny flower pot with a sprig of Rosemary peeking out from dark cookie crumble. Accompanied by a teeny “shovel” spoon, it’s a hit with children. How much longer will these small shops survive? I appreciate one-stop-shopping, but would hate to lose these unique stores. Visit T&T for sure, and don’t forget the little strip-mall shops that inspired the mega stores.

Meanderings is an award-winning travel column by Mercer Island resident Mindy Stern. For more essays, or to comment, visit her website www.mindysternauthor.com.