Europa Foods

They used to carry these amazing little noodles that I would make the best chicken soup with. Sadly, after a few years of not visiting my favorite little europa food market. The noodles are no longer carried. Boo. Although I did discover a tasty little chicken pastry for only 50 CENTS! Great cheap snack worth every calorie. It slightly helped to ease my dissapointment.
Shopping here would be the perfect place to practice the Russian I have been learning to speak, except I get far to embarassed. So I end up looking like a rude, obnoxious, redhead instead. Sorry guys! I really do love you!

This place is really two stores.
The left side is a Russian market, and really one of the worse ones in the area. Its only saving grace is the fresh breads and baked goods, which seem to be consistently very fresh. The rest of the store is sparse, dusty and overpriced. Be wary of expiration dates not only in the deli section but on the canned and pickled goods as well.
The right side is a pretty terrific produce store. The produce is about par with the stuff you’d get from Denio’s — sort of beat up but SO SO cheap. They usually have a fair selection, but some things you have to work for a bit. On my last visit there they had orange/​red/​yellow peppers 1lb for 1 dollar (or something equally cheap) but you really had to dig through the boxes to find some that weren’t mushy or wilted. That’s not the case with all the produce though, since most of it is perfectly fresh and delightfully cheap all at once. 10 bucks will get you a weeks worth of food or more, which is pretty excellent.

If you want fresh produce, this isn’t your place. I just bought a 10lf bag of potatoes, inside the bag they were moldy and juicy, just disgusting! Tomato’s, are always bruised and beat up, along with the apples. I have had good luck with their onions though. During the summer months, this place has the doors open which invites fruit flies galore here! This place needs to be inspected, bet it gets shut down. All I can say is, you get what you pay for.

I’ve spent a whopping $ 10 here and came out with enough veggies for various salads and stir fry’s for two weeks. If you’re looking for organic though, you won’t find it here. Local yes … organic, nope.
It ain’t pretty and the parking lot is a cluster f*ck but if you’re looking for produce on the cheap, this is one of your options in the area. Be sure to come early in the morning. I’ve hit this place twice, the second time walking in around noon and all the produce was quite picked over.

I’ve been to Europa a number of times… but not before the remodel! Yes, now in addition to their awesome Deli, dairy, desserts and spices… they have a separate green grocers, specializing in super cheap, super good looking vegetables. On my last visit, I got all this for JUST $ 17.50. Can we say… amazing?
3 bunches spinach
2 lb apple
2 lb orange (half regular, half blood orange)
3 grapefruit
1 head celery
1 bunch green onion
2 bunches of leeks
2 lbs mushrooms
5 lemons
10 carrots
3 yellow onions (huge!)
2 large zucchini
3 small zucchini
1 head lettuce
1 Japanese eggplant (long and big)
1 yellow bell pepper
1 green bell pepper
1 red bell pepper
ALL for just $ 17.50!
Check them out just for their fruits and veges. They also serve piroshki Monday through Friday, as well as fabulous looking fresh baked bread and frozen dumplings (which I have yet to try, sadly. :()

How can we live in the agricultural belt of california and be paying Safeway prices?! Well, local produce is finally winning out. yay! Most fruit here is either 59 cents or 39 cents per lb (minneolas, blood oranges, cara cara oranges, tangerines, bananas, pears, apples). Lemons and limes are five for a dollar. Onions are 29 cents per lb and zucchini, eggplant are all relatively cheap. cilantro, parsley and Italian parsley were all 39 cents each. I think I saw a ten lb bag of potatoes for two bucks. Most produce is in the sub-​dollar per lb. The quality of the produce is pretty good too.
They’re cheaper than Asian markets and that’s pretty hard to beat. Did I mention that they take credit card? These guys started up about two weeks ago, renting half the space from Europa Foods (a Russian market), so the sign says Europa Foods — but actually its the grocery half of the market. The business next door is Russian but their food is pricey and their service sketchy.
* addendum: 3.13.09 they’re trying to move the citrus. minneolas (cross between orange and tangerine) are 3 lbs for $ 1.

a great russian store, very clean, excellent variety of foods and veggies, staff is nice even to non-​russian people…

This must be a great market if you can read the labels, which are mostly in Russian. Their merchandise is neatly stacked and fronted on the shelves. They seem to have a lot of variety of whatever it is that they sell. I wish I knew what it was. ..