Asian and Arabic UK supermarkets

[RumNotRun]

I'm planning on going to some semi local foreign supermarkets soon as their fruit and veg always look amazing, and wondered what your top things are to buy in them. There's a Chinese supermarket on one side of the road and then a few Middle Eastern, Indian, and African supermarkets in the same stretch.

I want to try to go with a rough list rather than just being tempted by random things (which will almost certainly happen anyway) so any suggestions would be great.

Many of the things I buy have already been mentioned but other things to consider are:

Wasabi nuts 😋
Frozen soy beans
Frozen spring rolls
Tamarind paste to make pad Thai
Fresh thai basil, I freeze it and you can easily take a leaf out at a time for curries
Large tubs of red and green curry paste
Chinese cooking wine
Saffron strands
Kecap manis for nasi goreng
Crazy/random/no idea of the flavour instant ramen

@Normalsizedsalad Unfortunately I don't like watermelon (unless swerved with a side of raki in a beach bar in Greece!) but I am always very tempted by them despite that. They look magnificent.

There are two streets near me with international shops. Sadly one street is quite rough with gangs of lads hanging on corners and every so often having a fight. There are also about 15 barber shops in a 0.5 mile stretch 🤔 but the drug dealing is completely coincidental, honest.

The other street is a bit further away but less feral, that's where I'm going next week. It's about half an hour's walk away which is part of why I've not thought about going there before, but I happened to be on the street recently and had the idea of coming back when I get paid. Clifton Street and City Road respectively if anyone knows Cardiff.

If the streets have polish or EE shop with cakes, grab some cheesecake. Heaven😊

Polish/EE shops are my favourite! There's one near my old work place that sells a cake called an omelette. It's a sponge folded over with cream and jam in the middle and is about £1.50 (or was last time I went) You can easily share it between two as the cake is huge, although we used to get them occasionally at lunch time and not share cause we're greedy! Oh and hot dogs but in hollowed out baguettes instead of a cut in half roll. There's a tiny Polish shop about 30 seconds from my house that thankfully doesn't do cake (or I'd be even fatter) but does do all the lovely Radler cans and pierogi etc.

Ooh yeah Polish/ Eastern European shops -
Caraway seed rye bread
Amazing cheesecake
The best real cream cheese
Little pots of vanilla fromage frais
Cherry juice
Pierogi
Babka
Poppy seed cake
Good pretzels