Oriental Shop in Edinburgh - Matthew's Food

I would like to share about the largest oriental supermarket in Edinburgh; Matthew's Food. Coincidently and luckily, the store is just 10 minutes away from my house. So, coming from south east Asia (quite orient), I always go to this store to buy spices, sauces or even oriental vegetable - although the price obviously higher than UK's vegetables. 

Some might got confused while looking for this supermarket, only to see a Chinese restaurant, Imperial Palace Restaurant (with two big lion at the entrance) in between used car outlet. Afraid not, the supermarket is just below the  Imperial Palace Restaurant. Basically they are in the same building. Just people cannot properly see it from the road (below the road level). The restaurant serves dim sum and other Chinese dishes - tasty but expensive (more on that later). The restaurant is always full during weekend and Chinese New Year. There are ample parking spaces - up to 20 cars next to the supermarket, just enter though a small road next to used car outlet.

Picture from upper left: the small entrance from Inglis Garden Road (junction near to MKD Used Car), the view from car park. Lower pictures are the view inside the store.

Most of the products are imported from Thailand, Malaysia, China, Korea, Japan, Indonesia, India, Singapore, Vietnam  and Philippines. It's like mini East Asian food galore under one roof. This include fresh vegetables, variety of tofu, fresh poultry, frozen seafood and exotic fish, frozen dumpling, frozen fruits (including the king of the fruit - durian!), spices, sauces, ketchup, chilli sauces, cooking sauces, instant noodles, fragrant Thai rice, sushi rice, vermicelli, noodles, exotic Asian beverages (in can and bottle) and Oriental junk food. They also sell oriental cooking utensils like chopstick, knife, wok and tableware. If you are planning to buy fresh vegetable and fish, I suggest that you go there by 11 am. After that, the chances of getting the fresh goodies are slim... The store is also packed during weekend. For Malaysian, they sell brand such as Brahim's (cooking sauce), Hablal (soy sauce), Adabi (cooking sauce), Maggi (instant noodles and chilli sauce), Yeo's and Knorr. The closet thing to home cook, right? :)

You can pay with cash, debit card and credit card. You have to pay 5 pence per plastic bag, so bring your own bag if you want to save 5 pence. Or you can buy Matthew's Food bag for GBP 1.99. There are also empty boxes (depend on availability) that you can use to pack your goodies - FOC! You might see that some students just bring their luggage when shopping here; to justify their action, they buy a lot, have to walk to the bus stop and take the bus home... 

Happy shopping and cooking (later)!

How to get there;
Address: 36, Inglis Green Garden, Edinburgh EH14 2ER
Bus service: 34 and 20 (bus stop: Longstone Inn or Inglis Green Garden. Longstone Inn is nearer)
TEL: 0131 443 8686 FAX: 0141 332 1688
Opening time: 9.30 am - 5.30 pm (7 days a week)

I leave you guys with the lion dance from 2013 CNY celebration (the fire alarm was triggered by the smoke from the firecracker).

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