If you’ve ever passed through Hartford on I-84 or even been to West Farms Mall, you were actually very close to a wonderful place you may not even know existed. Just off New Britain Avenue in West Hartford is a strip mall which does not look all that remarkable from the street. But the businesses inside are quite remarkable, the biggest of which is A Dong Grocery.

Gorgeous, isn’t it? Ok, so maybe the outside is not prettiest, but what’s on the inside should be exciting to anyone who likes discovering new foods and cultures.

A Dong Grocery is huge. Unlike many other Asian groceries in the area, A Dong is the size of a typical American-style supermarket, with a large selection of meats, produce, groceries, sundries, and housewares. The meat department itself is worth a trip. The packages of pork stomach, congealed blood, intestines, kidneys, and hearts may not scream out “Buy me!” to many of us but there’s also some compelling items, one of which I’ve seen on a million New York City menus lately.

They’re labeled as “pork belly.” Is this indeed the same sort of item I would find at, say, a David Chang place? Because if so, I’m grabbing a few of these for next time and going wild at home with some braising, and maybe some smoking, too.

Pictured here is part of the produce section, with big blue buckets of shredded bamboo shoots. The top shelf of the produce was filled with wrapped packages of herbs, none of which I recognized.

This might be my favorite aisle in the store, as I am a life-long obsessive of Asian noodles of all kinds. There’s an overwhelming amount of variety and brands in bright packages, and there’s also an insane amount of round rice flour wrappers and skins as well. The other side of this aisle is where the jarred and canned goods start. There’s a large array of exotic canned fruits and jarred sauces and condiments and almost everything is cheap enough you can buy a few of the more adventurous looking items without breaking the bank.

I love coming to A Dong just to wander around and peruse, and the sheer amount of items to chose from merits this one post in and of itself. The other wonderful reason to visit A Dong is the prepared foods counter up front. Duck and banh mi are coming up in Pt. 2.

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