Green Fresh offers downtown residents high-quality Asian groceries

Green Fresh at 175 MacArthur Ave. opened on July 26 and the crowds are never-ending. Good news for Ottawans who love to cook a broad range of Asian cuisines but don’t want to spend a lot on gas to get quality ingredients. We now have a top-flight destination within downtown Ottawa.

If you love mangosteen fruit, Green Fresh has it along with the kinds of prices you find only in Toronto, $5.99 a pound. Brilliant.

There’s a fresh seafood counter, a broad range of Asian and Caribbean fruit and veg, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Caribbean and Filipino seasonings and a broad selection of meats.

Exciting for me are the frozen, sashimi grade Hokkaido scallops ($12.99 for 227 grams) and the frozen Egyptian freshwater crawfish ($12.99 a pound). I enjoy crawfish but have not eaten them in years due to environmental concerns with their most common provenance. Now that these are available from Egypt, I feel a little more comfortable and look forward to enjoying these with drawn garlic butter.

Finally, there’s no reason to shop around. I find the prices here very reasonable and the large, bright and clean space makes for enjoyable shopping.