Asian Market in Medford- Phoenix-Ashland Oregon

TASTE OF THE ORIENT- The Pinoy and Asian Store located at 251 Fern Valley Road, Phoenix, Oregon 97535. Contact Numbers:(541)227-6785 & (541)535-1684.

For almost a year of craving for my favorite Asian dishes and my mom’s traditional way of cooking each meal using the specific brand of spices is somewhat worth yearning for. We used to drive back and forth to Portland just for Asian grocery shopping. But recently, I went online and search for the nearest Asian Market in Medford. Fortunately, I am glad I found this article from Mail Tribune blog by Sarah Lemons, which guided me to patronize this local Asian business in town.

Now there’s a new kid in town. Taste of the Orient opened late last year at The Shoppes at Exit 24. Housed in a sparkling-clean, expansive storefront, this market likely will appeal to customers put off by the Medford business’s higgledy-piggledy jumble of goods in a location that shows (and smells like) its age.

Guided by a co-worker’s tip, I stopped by Taste of the Orient over the weekend to have a look around. I wasn’t in the market for a specific food but decided to browse, bearing in mind some recipes from a Pan-Asian cookbook my mom had given me. Whereas a trip to Asia Grocery Market is like a treasure hunt in a musty cave, Taste of the Orient displays its products in neat rows on pristine shelving or in impeccably maintained freezer cases. The effect is actually a little sparse, but the co-owner said he and his wife are bringing in more and more items based on customer requests. Hours are 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekends. There’s the usual suspects found in any Asian market: seaweed sheets and rice for authentic sushi, as well as the Kewpie brand mayonnaise typical to California rolls. Like Asia Grocery, the freezer cases contain enough dumplings, rolls, buns and noodles to supply a dim sum palace.

For the more adventurous, there’s balut eggs and the flesh of odorous durian fruit, albeit packaged in the freezer. I prefer to ogle the spiny, seemingly impenetrable fruit at Asia Grocery, although I’ve never been brave enough to buy one.
Also peculiar are bags and bags of dried fish, complementing the frozen specimens of milkfish, which I’d never seen but apparently are essential to Southeast Asian cuisine. Indeed, the whole store is geared toward that type of cookery in deference to the owners’ Filipino heritage. Myriad types of sago and tapioca, as well as other refined starches used in desserts from that part of the world take up a large section inside the store.

Thanks for the information and Credits to the original blogger Sarah Lemons