Wing Cheong

When Chinese New Year comes around, and you need to prepare Buddha's Delight aka Jai or any traditional Chinese dishes, then Wing Cheong is one of the best stores to come get what you need.Wing Cheong has been around for many, many years. It's located in Chinatown, along Hotel Street, next to Jimmy's Produce, near Kekaulike St.The store is small, and sells a little bit of everything. I like how they always have seasonal items and put them out front for passersby to see, and their produce and other items are always excellent quality. I recommend coming here for Lychee and Longan when it's in season.It was Chinese New Year season, and the front of the store had an array of specialty items for the occasion such as water chestnuts, arrowhead root, fried tofu and fried wheat gluten, dried mushrooms, bean thread, wood ear fungus, ginkgo nuts, dried bead curd sticks, dried oysters, black moss, and etc. It's pretty much a one stop shop! All are excellent quality!Inside the store has more things from the typical Asian sauces and condiments, tea, dried and preserved fruits and candy, and very specialty items such as dried sea cucumbers and dried fish maw.The owner and his family are super nice and very friendly. Always joking around in Cantonese AND English. Proficient in both!Overall, Wing Cheong is an excellent store. Definitely a go to store for specific items. Vegetables and other seasonal items are usually fresh and good quality. Some specific items we come here for and never disappointed are arrowhead root, water chestnuts, taro root, lotus root, lychee, and longan. Their vegetables are nice too. Many things are packaged and ready to go. The prices are very reasonable and fair.

I enjoy coming to Chinatown and I always make a stop at Wing Cheong. Its just a little store run by a humble & sweet family. The fruits are reasonably priced and it is not normally too crowded. I make this a mandatory stop during Lychee season, they have Lychee in different size bags and this year it was $5.99 per pound. The Lychee is a nice size, fresh and very sweet. I also love to try the different candies and dried fruits, they have everything you could imagine and I really enjoy trying different things candies & dried fruit everytime I visit.

Grocery shopping in Honolulu's Chinatown...During Lunar New Year or Chinese New Year, my family ate special Chinese food for good luck. One of these dishes is gau or gao, a sticky, mochi-like dessert, made with glutinous rice flour. The round shape represents unity while the red date on the top is for good luck. The stickiness symbolizes sticking together!I found a recipe on the internet for microwaved gau. Instead of steaming it for four hours, you can microwave gau for 18 minutes!I wanted to make another batch since my first try was tested by my coworkers. This second batch would be made for some friends. I needed more flour, so I went back to Chinatown on a Sunday morning when metered street parking is free. The store that I usually go to (on Hotel Street) was not open yet. Right next to that store is a smaller shop that was open. I took a look inside and asked for glutinous rice flour. They had it! And - it was at a lower price! Yay! I decided to get 2 bags of flour! Haha!Wow... I think I'll shop here more often... LOL!

After gawking at the high prices of taro chips at Nico's Pier 38, my friend wanted to try making taro chips. I told him it's just like making homemade potato chips but using taro instead of spuds. He mentioned about getting some taro at Whole Foods, where I started to gawk because Whole Foods made be a specialty store with great variety but their prices are on the high side! So, being born and raised on Maunakea Street, I knew if you looked around Chinatown you can find inexpensive produce so I was on a mission to find CHEAP taro. Muwahahaha!!!I have my go-to shops in Chinatown - - fresh seafood, live crabs, fruit and veggies, look funn noodles, etc.. When it comes to taro, I usually order it at restaurants when I have a craving for KAU YUK (pot roast pork belly). Not having a go-to taro store, I wandered around Chinatown until I came across Wing Cheong on Hotel Street. This is a small store which carries dried goods, packaged Chinese goodies, canned Chinese ingredients and some fresh produce. As you walk into the store they have lots of things all stacked up or in boxes and they also have some things for sale in front of their store along the sidewalk. This is where I noticed the taro! Compared with other produce stores, I find the taro here are larger and more cheaper with savings of about 30 cents per pound.Please keep in mind that when shopping in Chinatown, don't expect good service, a smile or a "thank you" greeting. The lady here behind the cashier gives you a stoic look and very robot-like. Once my taro was $7.01 and I didn't have a penny with me. I gave her a $20 and perhaps it was wrong of me to expect $13 in change but she handed me back $12.99!!!I did come across an unusual species of fresh mushroom here as I have never seen it at any store before (a very large ENOKI mushroom that is thick) one day so I gave it a try. It was not bad and when I went back to get it a couple of weeks later they didn't carry it! It wasn't a deal-breaker to get the same mushroom so I instead went to one of my go-to produce stores for fresh mushrooms.Overall, a general store in Chinatown where the things are cheap here but don't expect good customer service. Make sure to go through this check list:1) have cash available as many Chinese stores don't accept plastic2) find what you want to buy3) check the expiration date4) pay for the item and don't expect first-come, first serve because the elder Chinese peeps tend to rush to the front regardless of peeps standing in line.5) check your change6) walk out with your purchase

My favorite seeds store. It is hard to find the real deal without aspartame or other fake sugars.

Love the spicy lemon here. I'm hoping it's safe to eat located on hotel street. But I already ate a whole bag!!!its crowded difficult parking. Great service and friendly staff. The lychee is also great. They let u taste almost everything so that's a plus. Look for them at ur local craft fairs also. Takes cash and cards!!

Awesome service quality products and love the owners. The owners always have a smile on their faces and willing to go the extra mile.

Seeds, nuts, dried shrimp, and other dried goods this is just a bit of things you will find here. A lot of Li Hing Mui, Lemon Peel, Cashews, Peanuts etc etc.. and lots of other dried goods galore! nestled in the Heart of Chinatown on Hotel street with the crowd of people waiting for the buses and tourist and others shopping around it is a place for seeing smelling and experiencing. This shop has been around for a while and possibly related to some other shops I've seen in other Chinatowns and Maybe even Hong Kong but I can't be sure same name but who knows.

Best see moi in town, in my opinion. I love all kinds of see moi. This place has no aspartame or artificial sugar. The seedless licorice plum is the BOMB!! Li hing mui, licorice lemon, ginger honey lemon. I also like Lins of Hawaii if I can't get downtown. See Moi is the one food item I allow myself no matter what healthy eating lifestyle I'm practicing .

I absolutely LOVE their spicy dried lemon. So ono! And of course all the other dried and preserved seeds that they have.