Minh Canh

Packed full of Asian food items, canned and packaged. Fresh meat and fish. Cold beer and some Asian drinks. Fresh veggies.

First thing: DIRTY. Even for an asian grocery store, this was bad. A grocery store in New Orleans that doesn’t have a fish section? The staff isn’t necessarily rude but very strange. I think that if you need asian products, you may want to go to another place so you won’t disgust yourself.

One of the larger stores in the east for Asian groceries. I have to say prices are reasonable for being in the east. That being said, you will find better prices at Hong Kong Market or Dong Khanh in the westbank. The workers are a bit rude. They will run you over as they are stocking their inventory. Things are cramped but they have just about everything you need.

This is a medium sized Asian grocery that has a good selection of many products. Their produce is variable and you’re never quite sure what you might find available. I was happy to find my liquid ginsing and royal jelly here which is an herbal infusion I like to occasionally indulge in to make my chi extra strong. This certainly isn’t as large or nice a store as Hong Kong Market on the Westbank and they don’t have nearly as good a selection of fresh produce but they do have some things that even Hong Kong doesn’t have. They certainly could take a bit more time to clean the large amount of garbage out of their parking lot.

OH yes. Oh yes yes yes yes yes. FTR a place like Minh Cahn? It’s what Unilocal dreams are made of.
This deceptively small Asian grocery seems to have it all. In fact, you could easily pluck it up and put it down in Chinatown in any major city and it would not be lacking.
What you can expect here– a gazillion varieties of hot sauce, spices, otherwise hard to find canned goods (Dozens of varieties of canned wheat gluten with various preparations for example, vegetarians!), an entire rice and noodle aisle, the cheapest produce (like those mushrooms that will cost you a small fortune at WF are a fraction of the price here plus *fresh* bamboo shoots and the like), candies, incense, pottery, meat and fish counter, Asian-​style tofu (The packaged stuff at WF does not compare) and a ton of other stuff I’m forgetting. It’s Vietnamese owned, but you can find an array of items from just about any country in Asia (though don’t expect loads of Japanese specialties).
I need to take more careful notes next time I go back, but let’s talk more about hot sauce because that’s one of my favorite things. You know those huge vats of Sambal hot sauce? THEY’VE GOT ‘EM!!! And Sri Racha, if that’s your thing. And fermented black beans with chilis. Cue the salivary glands!
They do make prepared food to go. Not sure what the menu is like… assuming your standard Viet specialities.
I know that Hong Kong Market is on everyone’s list, but for some of us, New Orleans East is a bit more convenient than the West Bank, so it’s great to know Minh Cahn is over there. Plus there’s something indescribably haunting about driving on that stretch between New Orleans and New Orleans East on Chef Menteur Highway…