Yes, that is true, any shop that sells products of a particular cultural group, could be considered an 'ethnic food shop'

So we could list the british / american / australian food shops as well....anyone want to add those links ?

I can also recommend the turkish style grocery at the Manesseplatz bus stop (Zurich) and there is an asian grocery store on the opposite corner which I haven't been into but seemed to have some basics.

In Adliswil, the 'Krone Lädeli' has re-opened and the hours are from 10am to 10pm monday to saturday. We bought some superb sri lankan curry paste which my husband over-zealously added to a chicken curry last week - one teaspoon would have been plenty hot enough for the family...he added 2-3 Tablespoons But it was still edible...delicious!

I second that. You can pick up fruit and vegetables relatively cheap for Zürich. But sometimes you have to spent a bit of time rummaging as they sometimes leave out stuff that is past its best.

Come Kaki season, I expect to be there every other day, considering how many kilos my SO gets through in a week.

The grocery at Manesseplatz has recently changed hands, the quality and freshness, and prices are brilliant, and they had a huge range of fresh breads when I went there today...

How recently was that? I was in there a week or two and I knew the guy on the till. The inside had been reorganised, but no obvious sign of a buy out .

Neat to know theres Vietnamese stores in Zurich XD

There's quite a large Thai supermarket in Morges, in the same street as the Post Office. Has an extensive range of Thai groceries, fresh veg and herbs, frozen stuff, and also some Japanese/ Chinese/ Indian goods (including the Pataks range of curry pastes, thank you thank you thank you).

I was delighted to find bumper packs of different fresh chillies which are now sliced and frozen for liberal scattering into cooking, along with coconut oil and palm sugar which will expand my recipe range.

Our next "foods of the world: shopping tour is planned for Saturday November 6.

Check it out on the forum calendar...

Swisspea

I've set up a group 'swisspea's shopping tours' if anyone would like to keep up to date with the tours this year (2011) - I can run private tours on arrangement - tours are free, I volunteer my enthusiasm, you tell me what you are searching for, and we meet at the Zurich HB or around Zurich...

PM me for more info

nice, time to cook...

holly mother!
looks like this MEXICAN/AMERICAN is taking a extended grocery trip to Zurich!
thank you much for the information on the stores, especially the "mexican" shop. I want to see how mexican they really are
thanks

oh and question:
might anyone happen to know if the leafy green Kale is available anywhere in the Zurich area? I am in need of my anti-cancer veggie! If you can help that would be splendid!

(b.t.w. i ask because I live a ways away from any major city)

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Kale is out of season now, thus hard to find. Hell, even in season it's hard to find here. I hope you like spinach!

Next December, start looking at health food stores (they always have it) and the organic departments of Coop (they sometimes have it). I've never seen it at Migros.

Bear in mind, it appears that -- as with many old-fashioned foods -- kale and collard greens have been relegated to animal feed in this continent, esp. in Switzerland.

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this one...

http://www.goldenasian.ch/

There are a few indian fish shops around. Aggarwals is one. There's also one near the denner on langstrasse that's a block up from limmatplatz towards the railway bridge. If you head along Quellenstrasse and Josefstrasse you'll see some fish shops too amongst other indian grocery stores

Near Bern,

Eastern Asian food supplies,
http://yellow.local.ch/en/d/Liebefel...-AG&where=Bern

South Asian food supplies,
http://yellow.local.ch/en/q/Bern/Aggarwal.html?rid=pow1

Last year I was looking for a place in Zurich to get some grape leaves and fillo/phyllo dough (and tahini), and this thread came up first in my search. I tried the Hellas Shop mentioned back on the very first page, and I can recommend it. They have a good selection, and even though their website appears to have disappeared, the shop was still there (last I checked). The one disadvantage is that it's inconvenient for me to drive out to the boonies since I have no car.

Just this morning, though, I found a large and more conveniently-located near-eastern grocery store: "Tatli Shop" at Schwamendingerplatz (along tram lines 7 and 9).

What are the prices like at these shops? At an Indian grocery store in Sunnyvale, California, I bought two full shopping bags of spices, okra, and paneer for 40 USD. Should I expect to pay 2x or 3x that price here?

Of course it depends on what you buy, but I would say it'd cost almost 3 times more. I normally spend around chf 70-80 on 1 shopping bag containing spices, snacks, frozen parathas and paneer. Go to a Migros/Coop and it'll be the same if not more...

But, to be honest, I don't really care what it costs, I'm just happy that we have the opportunity to buy these products.

I think it depends on the shop itself and the product. I used to get fresh "baby" corn cobs to feed guinea pigs at one of my local Asian (Thai) stores, at Coop it was something like 4chf for maybe 8 - 10 ears of corn, at the Asian store, for about twice as many, it was only about 2.50chf. I've not bought okra here but I think the price and amount difference was similar - same goes for fresh little red chilis too.

The spices I've gotten there also had similar price difference BUT they came in plastic bags rather than small jars - so probably packaging factors into the cost as well. (I bought a bag of ground cumin to mix into my chili and other "Southwest / Tex-mex" dishes - as infrequently as I use it though, I'd prefer the jars rather than a bag, despite the cost)

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