Apsara Gourmet Oriental Food Market

I drove by looking for the location that stated on their web site «new location.» The store is not there. I came home and tried their phone number and it is disconnected.

I needed patis (fish sauce) and bagoong (shrimp paste) and was too lazy to drive to H-​Mart and Lotte. A quick Google search showed me this location nearby :)
I walk in and I was a bit stunned at all the bare shelves :(
The nice lady working the counter said they were out of bagoong and had only ONE kind of patis available :(
She said they normally carry more things and to come back on Thursday which is when they get their shipments. I paid a dollar for my small bottle of patis mansi and will probably come back on a Thursday to see if things look any better.
So 1 smiley face and 2 sad faces equals 2 stars.
–_​–

I never dreamed of seeing it, but this is an actual, real life sari-​sari store in the United States. I’m not kidding. The store consists of ONE ROOM. There is no business sign, just a posterboard on the door with the words «Aspara» written in handwriting. If you didn’t see the FOREX sign in the window, you’d never know what it was.
I could probably count the number of items they offer for sale in about 5 minutes. And despite this, there are still empty refrigerator racks and spaces not in use. Maybe they were better before they moved here, but I’m sorry — I have to rate this the lowest of any store I have ever visited.

My ex-​coworker has an unhealthy addiction to sesame cakes, and feeds that problem here. I don’t know if I caught them right before restock at the end of the month, but the inventory on their shelves seemed pretty sparse in selection and volume. Standard stock of foreign flicks at bootleg prices. A few essentials short of being practical, and nothing but balut (which I didn’t find) warranting a revisit unless I had the misfortune to work within walking distance of this random business complex.

They just moved to a smaller place in the same building. They are now at 313 Sunset Park Dr. It is an oriental grocery. A lot of Filipino, Thai, Indonesians, etc. items. Friendly service.
Cooked food available to go.
Forex, and other balikbayan boxes.
No alcohol, which means no San Miguel here :(
As far as I know it is the closest Filipino store around the Herndon area.

This place may be small, but they have items I can’t find anywhere else but the large markets (far away.) Thai tea, Korean barley tea, and lotus roots and seeds under one roof!

Lets go back in time for this one… back to my Filipina grandmother’s house circa. 1990.
GRANDMA: «You hab to pinish your pancit now, ha… eet weel help you grow taller.»
LIL’ LEILA: «But Lola, I don’t like the vegetables!»
GRANDMA: «Oy! You eat it. Ees not nice to waste your pood.»
So, I ate my pancit with vegetables and all. Guess what? I’m 5’0.
GRANDMA: «Why you don’t eat your pish, ha?»
LIL’ LEILA: «But Lola, the fish is looking at me and the patis is stinky.»
GRANDMA: «OK, so you eat da eye den and it weel not look anymore.»
LIL’ LEILA: «I don’t wanna eat it, Lola.»
GRANDMA: «Come on, come on. It weel make you bery bery smart.»
So, I ate the damn fish with eyeballs and all. Where’s my 4.0 GPA?
GRANDMA: «Leila, you come herr… come herr. I hab to show you someteeng.
LIL’ LEILA: «Yes, Lola?»
GRANDMA: «Ip you eat dees balut, you weel become bery bery beautipul.»
LIL’ LEILA: «Mommy says I’m beautiful already, Lola.»
GRANDMA: «You are beautipul, Leila. But ip you don’t eat dees, you will not pind a husband.»
Well, I never mustered up enough courage to eat the balut egg and I am in fact, unmarried… but hey, I’m only 21 so I figure I’m still safe. Just in case I start getting worried though, Apsara will definitely be my first destination to go to for buying the delicacy that is balut… as well as any other Filipino foods or ingredients that might be necessary in determining my life’s future.
*Note: This place used to be Thai-​owned but was bought out by Filipinos several years ago… so, although the store does carry various Asian foods and specialties, it is largely Filipino influenced now.