Wherever we Filipinos are, we can never forget the taste of home. We always desire for the dinuguan, or the bitter ampalaya, or the isdang paksiw. We wish to prepare the dishes just like how we did it back home. The only problem is, we can never find the right ingredients for our Filipino recipe. No matter how we search at WalMart or HyVee or any other supermarket, the alugbati or malunggay is just so elusive to find.
That’s why we look for Filipino stores or Asian stores that sell the Pinoy ingredients. In most U.S. States, there is almost always a Filipino store by the alley. All you need to do the moment you arrive at a new place is to find a fellow Filipino and most likely you’d get the direction to the store.
Here in South Dakota, there is one store located in one big city of Sioux Falls. The store is Thanh Mai LLC. It is not purely Filipino store though. It is an Asian store that caters to every Asian need for food supplies. So, it is also a Thailand store, Indian Store, Chinese Store, Indonesian Store, Vietnamese Store, Malaysian Store, Korean Store, etc. — all at the same time.
There is one row that displays Philippine-made stuff: bottled, canned, plastic-wrapped, everything seems to exist. You need bagoong, chicharon, noodles, toyo, you name it, they have it. If by any chance they don’t have the product you need, you can tell the manager and they’ll order it for you. Try it with polvoron.
If you are a Filipino in SD looking for a Filipino store, visit Thanh Mai LLC.
Thanh Mai LLC, address and phone number:
824 E Rice St
Sioux Falls, SD 57103
(605) 334-0853
