speciality supermarkets, NJ

What about supermarkets?
There’s the Asian Supermarket on RT-79 in Marlboro, with just about anything you may be looking for from just about all Asian countries, as well as some prepared foods. (also on route 18 in Brunswick).

Then in Lakewood there’s the kosher supermarket on Route 9 (used to be a shoprite, I think), HUGE supermarket, huge butcher section, fish, prepared foods, bakery etc. with FANTASTIC Danish pastries. all strictly kosher. The butcher is great in that he’ll cut your meat to your specifications - if you want rib steak 3/4 inch thick or 1.5 inches thick, he’ll do what you want. Or a certain cut of roast, he’ll do it for you (obviously needs to be kosher). and the chocolate Danish are delish (did I say that already?)

Now, on Rte 9 in Manalapan, where the stop and shop used to be (just south of Gordon corner’s road), there opened a supermarket that I’d call eastern European. Lots of prepared foods - Tried the blinis (cheese, cherry, etc) today, apple pancakes, and lots of pierogies. Salads, fish soups, and more. Good deli counter, candies, chocolates, cakes, pastries from eastern Europe, even prepared Rabbit and stuff. Smoked salmon, smoked sable, lox (thin and thick), and so on.

The Route 79 one is Asian Food Market. The one in East Brunswick is Hong Kong Supermarket. There is also one on Route 35 in Middletown next to Crown Palace (in the old AFM location), SM Food Market.

There’s a Russian grocery, Sunshine International Foods, next to Maru on Route 18, East Brunswick.

As far as Indian stores, there is one a bit south of AFM on Route 79, Ethnic Spice Indian Groceries.

Keyport, Matawan, and several other towns have bodegas.

There’s a new Indian market - Bhavani Market I believe on 9 in Old Bridge or Sayervill. It’s by the Home Depot sort of. They were a small place on the east side of 9 but moved into much bigger space. The name of the Eastern European place at the Stop & Shop escapes me but it’s a chain out of Brooklyn. NextLots maybe?

Net Cost is the name of the new Eastern European market in Manalapan.

They have one in SI. Went once, not much that I really loved, but my Russian cowokers swear by it. Drive hours out of the way to get stuff there.

Well I was close.

Apparently it is a very popular supermarket as a Russian friend of mine speaks highly of it. Haven’t stopped in yet, but did some research on the founders - interesting backgrounds of the father and son. The pictures here, especially the smoked fish, look interesting: https://mycitypaper.com/food/net-cost-market-is-the-best-supermarket-that-yoursquove-never-heard-ofltbr/gt

Bumping this one up.

So, has anyone tried Net Cost in Manalapan? I was thinking of going this weekend.

Been there once shortly after it opened. I am not familiar or really interested in Russian/Eastern European stuff so I haven’t been back since then.

I did pick up a jar of caviar and I do remember some cooked food item looked interesting.

I’ve been in a couple times. It’s big but I wasn;t overly impressed. Most of the Eastern European stuff I want I either make myself or go to a few small mom & pops I know of.

I love Net Cost. I’ve been to both their stores in Philadelphia and the one in Manalapan. Some of their stores carry different items. While I didn’t find as much I wanted to buy at Manalapan, one of the Philadelphia ones I found more items, it’s just a farther drive for me.

Try National Wholesale Liquidators in Lodi. Each aisle has food from different countries. Downstairs is household goods, and other stuff, some food… upstairs there’s clothes, then tucked away in the back is a huge food market. They have a side entrance you can go right into food if you want. Just be sure to check the expiration dates. It’s over an hour drive to get there for me and I’ve sometimes came home with an expired product.

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PS - Has anyone ever been to Jungle Jim’s in Ohio? It’s bigger than a Home Depot all international foods. Their larger store is about 300,000 square feet. I wish they had something like that in New Jersey (or closer to).

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My friend from Romania loves Net Cost. We haven’t gotten there yet, but should probably make an outing to it.

There’s a true international market like Jungle Jim’s in Las Vegas called International Marketplace. It’s not on the strip so a mostly local crowd. They carry more asian and island products but fill their huge space with things from many different countries.

I hate to drive ( thanks to five years living in L.A. ) so an hour just to shop seems like a lot. Is it worth it?

I went this weekend. Store was very clean and well laid out and I made sure to visit every aisle. The steam table alone is worth the trip. It was an entire aisle full of eastern european cooked food from shaslik to manti.

The deli was well stocked and I picked up some bologna and ham after trying a proferred taste of several of each. There was a counter full of caviars, but I restrained myself. I was also suitably impressed by the array of smoked fish. I took a long time going over all the different honeys and jams before settling on an avocado honey and a fig jam. I was less impressed with the honey cake I got from the bakery, but probably only because the russian market next to Just on rt 9 has spoiled me for it.

All in all, it won’t replace Wegmans as my go to market, but I will definitely be back for some specialties.

This place is sick! I popped into a few Russian/East European markets/delis while I was away and really wished for a similar place back home. I’ll definitely be checking out NetCost…does anyone know of any other similar (or smaller) places?

We shopped at Net Cost yesterday and this morning enjoyed the apricot and mushroom blinis. We also purchased frozen pkgs. of spinach and potato turnovers, strawberry preserves, frozen ice cream wafers and three loaves of fresh black forest bread. Next time, we are bringing the portable cooler with us to shop more freely. Straight down Tennent Rd. took about 25 mins for us; totally worth it. We think the prices across the aisles are terrific.

Today I finally got up to Corrados in Clifton. I have to say I was a bit disappointed. After all the hype it was just another grocery store with some Italian stuff. Their wholesale warehouse is small & seems to mostly be stocked for pizza shops & the like.

Now - having said that, the wine/home brewing store is full of all sorts of interesting things. Very cool stuff for wine making, beer brewing, vinegar making, tomato sauce making & other home food making enterprises. That was worth the trip.

Juanitos on Shrewsbury in Red Bank has a great selection of Central American and Mexican stuff.

They also have a custom butcher counter and make their own chorizo, longaniza and pre marinated pastor to go.

Indian Grocery Outlet on Talmadge in Edison is worth a trip. It’s like a Walmart for Indian ingredients. If you can’t find it there it’s probably not available in this country.