Aihua Chinese Supermarket

A tiny store that’s packed full of lots of Chinese and South East Asian ingredients. It’s a little bit chaotic and it can be a bit challenging to find the exact ingredients you want but it sticks a good selection of stuff.
There is a good variety of drinks, sauces, noodles and sweets. They always have the ingredients listed in English on the back but often the cooking instructions aren’t that clear and I’m sure there are things that I’d like to try but don’t have a clue how to cook.
The staff will help you find things if you ask but otherwise they’ll just leave you to get on with it.

Love this shop, they have everything I am looking for, just go its great.
Favorite foods:
— pickled veg to lift any stir fry next to the till area
— dim sum galore
— good deal on fish and prawns
— great prices for rice, noodles and soup noodles
— interesting snacks for work lunches
Plus points
— huge selection of amazing foods
— inexpensive
— friendly and helpful owners
— bang in the center of town for me
— They have offered to order in specifics for me in the past
Minus points (just being picky these don’t really bother me)
— tiny and cramped
— not open on Sundays

If you are not very familiar with Asian cooking, a trip to this shop might safe you an expensive air fare. If you are not Asian, you will be in the minority in this shop, and many of the items will remain a mystery because not always do they come with an English translation. However, if you have some experience with this type of cuisine, you’ll be happy to quickly find what you need
The shop is very small but — literally — stuffed up to the roof with Asian foodstuffs. However, the choice for fresh produce, meat, and fish is very small. But what you will find here are almost all items for your pantry, like dried mushrooms, noodles, rice, various chilli pastes, and all kinds of sauces and spices. You can also get some kitchen utensils and they have a small selection of chopsticks. The items might be a bit pricey, but certainly not excessively so; however, being used to the price structure of Asian supermarkets abroad, I was quite surprised at what I was asked to pay for some sauces and sesame oil. Still, much better going there than to a British supermarket chain.
It seems to be a common thing among Asian supermarkets that they only deal in cash.

This will be a short but sweet review on my third Asian market that I do love as well as the other two I frequent. This little store is hidden on a little side street off Nicholson st. Has a lot of the staple Asian cuisine ingredients one needs for delicious homemade Asian food. Not the biggest selection but the basics. Besides you could get most of the fresh food you need for Asian dishes anywhere up and down Nicholson st. So it covers most bases. I always feel welcome when I come in and the prices are not to bad at all for the quality. They also have a little frozen section you can browse in and get anything from frozen fish to frozen chicken feet (ugh can’t imagine theres much to eat there, but I would try them if offered to be polite of course). So if you live in the area and your craving asian or want to try your hand at making Kung Pao Chicken and need the ingredients this is the place for you!

I needed (okay. wanted!) to make some South-​East Asian food this week, as cuisines of this area usually combine flavoursome and generally healthy ingredients to make something really rather awesome. A lot of this kind of food I can rustle up with local ingredients, but there are a few harder to come by items, which are far cheaper in Chinese supermarkets than those which can be found in Tesco. This is very close to Tesco too, nestled in an ally way. The shop is quite small, but does its job. It’s handy having a place like this so close to where I live.
I knew about Aihua, and I have strolled in a few times without any real idea of what I wanted to buy, and came out confused, holding seaweed snacks… Many products are very unusual, including mock duck, unknown meats and packaging which doesn’t imply much to an ignorant eye (like mine). It’s frustrating, as I am sure there is a treasure trove of ingredients in here, but I just don’t recognize much! This is one of the many reasons why I am self-​teaching myself Mandarin. That said, there are plenty of more obvious foods like instant noodles, the ever-​popular pocky and hello panda Asian sweets, and some quintessentially Asian vegetables like pak choi and beansprouts.
Today I sent my boyfriend on a mission to buy yeo satay and fresh tofu. Tofu is almost always cheaper and nicer in Chinese supermarkets. £3 and I got double the quantity which I would have brought at Tesco (sorry Tesco, yes I am comparing you). Yeo satay is really amongst the best prepared sauces available. There are no weird ingredients or MSG, just coconut, peanuts, tamarind, cornflour, oil and spices. This is a good place to stock up on rice and noodles too.

I think this shop rocks! There are quite a lot of ready meal super noodle type things which I am not really a fan of, but they also have a great range of condiments — I found my long sought after yellow bean paste here. They also sell really good mochi which I just lurrve so much!
I love that most of the labels are only in Chinese, it’s a good opportunity to ask about new ingredients and to discover new tastes.
Only issue is how to get their frozen edemame up to St Andrews in its still frozen state???

It’s a little comical calling this place a supermarket; I’m not saying it’s ridiculously small, on the contrary, but it’s NOT a supermarket! I went in there looking for pure coconut oil (purely cosmetic reasons) and whilst they didn’t have what I was looking for, the man who worked there was so friendly and even directed me to other shops I could find what I needed.
To the contents of the store itself, this seems like a place for people who actually know what they’re doing with the ingredients. So to all those curry paste, coconut milk, and ramen people like me, be warned! A lot of the food labels and prices are primarily in Chinese, and the English prices, which I had to squint to see sometimes seem a little bit like an after thought… as though «we ARE in the UK, I guess we should make it decipherable for the natives as well».
I can only give this store full marks for at least the appearance of authenticity, as I’m far from an expert on Asian cuisine of any kind!

This is one of the better Asian mini-​markets in Edinburgh. Just off Nicholsonn Street and near the Edinbugh uni campus, this is an ideal place for students to pop in and pick up some ingredients if they are feeling a bit more adventurous with their kitchen skills. Also, if you muck it all up, there is Wawa noodle bar across the road to show you how it should be done.
Walking into this store, you will be impressed by the sheer amount of stuff they have managed to cram in. It’s like a condensed warehouse, with shelf after shelf piled high with Chinese goods. It is amusing asking for one of the jars of pickled ginger at the top of everything and seeing the owner’s face fall as when he realises where it is. But minor acts of meanness aside, this store is great for Asian cooking. It has masses of rice and noodles, sauces, spices, obscure jars of stuff I couldn’t even begin to describe but look tasty, seaweed, Asian soft drinks… you name it they have it. There is a huge amount of Super Noodle equivalents as well, with much more interesting flavours; as these are often a staple student meal, I thought it would be important to mention them here. The owner is cool as well, when you can find him hidden in the surprising amount of aisles in the store. He is helpful and shows you where everything is, which is more of a challenge that you’d expect.
The prices here are definitely more expensive than your standard supermarkets but the food is much better. Also you would be surprised how long much of it lasts you, even if you use it frequently. To be honest I would prefer to give my money to the owner of a shop like this than to Tesco for inferior food that doesn’t taste anywhere near as good.

So many people I know have lived in this part of Newington for ages and still don’t know that this place exists. Which is, in my opinion, one of the best things about it. Usually when I go in I’m the only non-​chinese person in there, which is always a reassuring nod towards the authenticity of the place.
They quite literally stock everything from instant pot noodle-​type things to raw ingredients like spices and flavourings, as well as all those ingredients that you can’t find in British supermarkets, no matter how big. They sell things in bulk (check out the enormous sacks in the rice aisle) as well as in smaller day-​to-​day quantities for people who aren’t cooking for 30+.
Although the prices are higher than you might expect — I paid almost £3 for a pack of dry noodles that I could have bought for £1 for the same quantity in Tesco — the quality is so much better. Also, you’ll suffer in here if you’re claustrophobic, as everything is packed extremely high and the aisles are about 2 feet wide maximum. But these two disadvantages are the only disadvantages.
If you’re cooking a meal that requires even one chinese ingredient, you should look here for it first.