We were running low on some of our favorite Asian food ingredients all the way back in November, but unfortunately Bend, Oregon did not have an Asian food grocery store. So we had to wait until December when we got to Eugene, OR which is about twice the size of Bend at almost 190,000 people and apparently more diverse.

After a little Googling, we found several choices and based on some reviews and photos that looked promising we chose Sunrise Asian Market. As it turns out, this place is so incredible that we’ve been back several times on our visit. Don’t have time to read this now? Pin it for later!

Sunrise Asian Market

It’s small and tightly packed, but very organized and well stocked. Each aisle is dedicated to a particular region, labels neatly written in English, and the staff is very helpful so it’s easy to find even the most obscure thing. One aisle might be only Japanese products, while the one across it is Chinese. The best part is it was truly an Asian food grocer: they also had Indian, Pakistani, Vietnamese, Taiwanese, Korean, etc. Pretty much anything you could want was here: Fresh, frozen and instant noodles, frozen and refrigerated sections, spices, sauces, condiments, candy, chips, deserts, exotic produce, rices, flours, prepackaged goods, beer/wine, gifts, and on and on.

Premade Foods

There is even a deli counter where they sold hot and cold foods like premade curries, dipping sauces (their Korean dipping sauce has been great on rice, quinoa and with chicken), Japanese pickles, Chinese BBQ pork, roasted duck, sushi, egg rolls, and a bunch of other things you can ask for off a menu. Everything was reasonably priced too. We really like the Japanese pickles, spicy seasoned cucumbers, vegetable noodle salad in lime dressing, egg rolls, and especially the Chinese BBQ pork. The Thai papaya salad could definitely use more sauce though. We went back recently only later in the evening just before close and I was bummed they were out of most of this stuff so we will definitely have to make another trip earlier in the day.

Pho & Won-Tons

After restocking up on a few essentials like miso, spices, sauces, and black vinegar we saw they had a good selection of frozen beef bones so we got everything we needed to make our favorite homemade pho and to try something new by making Chinese won-tons in spicy sauce like the ones you get at Din Tai Fun. The latter turned out pretty good for my first attempt, but the sauce needs some further tweaking to get closer to the restaurant version (sorry we didn’t take a picture of the final dish!). We have made pho twice using different combinations of frozen bones we bought at Sunrise Asian Market but this last time was our best. They even have the beef perfectly sliced and ready to be tossed into your pho.

Papad

Jeri also likes Indian lentil flatbreads (papad) which they had in a variety of flavors so we tried plain, garlic and green chillies, along with some spicy pickle lime and garlic chutney. Since the papad is made from lentils it is gluten free and a great cracker or chip substitute for Jeri. Jeri typically eats one in the morning with her bacon and eggs, and they are great with hummus or salsa. To cook the papad, you just use tongs and roast the papad over a low-medium flame until it bubbles and crisps up.

The selection at Sunrise Asian Market is incredible. We highly recommend you check out their grocery and premade foods. We still have a few weeks left in Eugene and I doubt we’ll resist going back at least one more time before we leave. I definitely want more of their Chinese BBQ pork!

Looking for other delicious food in Eugene? Check out our Unbelievably Fresh Dungeness Crab in Eugene article. Interested in local foods we discover as we travel the country? Take a look at our Food articles. What are we doing next? Don’t miss an article, subscribe today.