Vientiane Oriental Food Market

I came here to get boba drink. I ordered a Thai milk tea with boba. It's $5. I thought it's a bit pricy but it came in a big, generous cup. I also found a few Asian/Indian spices that I cannot find in the regular grocery store. Their items are mainly Vietnamese but I found some Japanese snack and Chinese grocery. Good selections of Asian grocery here!

A relative of mine once got into a stupid argument about whether "oriental" was, in fact, an offensive term. In Salina, I guess it's not? There's another "Oriental" market right around the corner, although I didn't have a chance to visit it. This is a small shop with three aisles of food. It has the darkly sweet and vaguely unpleasant smell often associated with Asian supermarkets. In back, there are some shelves of cookware and bowls. Half of the floor space of the shop is divided off and used for two pool tables. There were some people playing pool here when I walked in, which seemed odd for the early afternoon.Although "oriental," this store has almost exclusively Southeast Asian fare. There is no Korean packaged food (unless you count Nong Shim Bowl Noodles, which are available in ordinary supermarkets--even in Salina), and no Japanese food (unless you count the Thai-labeled Glico snacks, including small boxes of Pocky for 79 cents). Good place to get coconut milk, I guess.I was able to get some Chinese-labeled rice cracker snacks from Thailand, which were sweet and MSG-laden for just $1.29. That's something.