Where to shop for international ingredients in San Antonio

In a land where H-E-B is king, smaller local grocers are carving out space by offering international ingredients for cuisines from around the world. Whether it’s just the right spice, a tropical fruit or a trending snack, it’s worth the extra drive to score items you can’t find at the average supermarket. These stores reflect San Antonio’s diversity, giving immigrants a taste of home and the larger community a chance to expand their palates. Across San Antonio — and across grocery aisles — these six specialty grocery stores are building community and promoting cultural exchange.

Aryana Halal Meat Market, located at 8114 Fredericksburg Rd., is a family-owned and operated business that has been around since 2019 with the purpose of providing food relevant to the Afghan community of San Antonio. The market has a meat counter where it sells fresh chapli, kabob, lamb, beef, poultry and other halal meat. They sell other specialty goods such as fresh naan, a selection of produce, dates, pickled mangoes, sunflower seeds and popular Alokozay energy drinks in bulk. The market’s owner also runs a boutique in the same business strip.

Blessing African Food Store, located at 5715 Evers Rd., was opened by a couple from the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2020. Since then, the store has provided a variety of goods from Central Africa that can be used to make favorite African dishes like palm nut soup, kittely stew and afang soup. Frozen goods include hen, fumbwa, water leaves, and bitterballs. On the shelves, you’ll find baobab fruit flour, calabaa chalk, pounded yam, dried fish and palm nut cream. The store sits in the same strip as India Store, a small Indian grocery store, and across the street from Eagle African Market, which specializes in Nigerian ingredients.

Las Americas Latin Market, located at 6623 San Pedro Ave., is a family-owned business that has been around since 1997. The sons of the original Colombian owners run it now with the same purpose as their parents: to provide the city with food from all over Latin America in a community where Mexican products dominate the shelves. The market aims to showcase every Latin American country through the meats, produce, frozen foods, remedies and other imported items. It sells products such as Venezuelan and Salvadoran queso, Cuban guava paste and Peruvian chicha morada.

Sasha’s European Market, located at 8023 Callaghan Rd., offers a variety of imported goods with an Eastern European focus. Open since 2010, the market has offered items like frozen herring, salmon paste, frozen perogies, Belgian cheese, Russian halva and vodka-filled candies, as well as popular European brands such as Bandi Foods, Roshen and Even Zahav. The market also makes its own rye bread and has a small collection of Russian books.

Seoul Asian Market and Cafe, located at 1005 Rittiman Rd., is a Korean grocery store open since 2010. The market has staples like gochujang, gochugaru and kimchi, along with a variety of produce, fish, frozen foods, drinks and snacks — not to mention a large selection of ramen. Specialty goods include shrimp-flavored crackers, fish sausage and popular Korean brands of instant coffee. If you get hungry after all that shopping, head over to the market’s cafe, which serves dishes like gamjatang, spicy squid and beef bulgogi. You can even grab a roll of kimbap to go.

Tim’s Oriental & Seafood Market, located at 7015 Bandera Rd., lives up to its name with an array of seafood offerings including crab, roasted trevally, dried squid, roasted eel and more. But the market offers more than just seafood. Cantonese barbecue roasted pork and duck is made in-house, along with treats like fresh ube buns. You’ll find all the Asian cooking essentials at Tim’s, plus plenty of extras like instant boba packs, plum wine and rambutan fruit.

Flora Farr is a Scripps Howard editorial intern at the San Antonio Report. She will be majoring in journalism at the University of Texas at Austin. More by Flora Farr