In the strip mall of N. 76th Street, there’s a little supermarket called the Asian Market. Like its name suggests, the Asian Market carries Asian goods, ranging from snacks to rice bags to fresh produce, frozen fish balls, soap and teacups.  

On an average Friday, the Asian Market is bustling with customers from a multitude of ethnic backgrounds. When customers enter the store, there’s a little lobby room where they keep the shopping carts.  

When you step past the lobby area, you’ll be greeted by the checkout area with a line of expectant shoppers waiting as the red-clad employees hurry to scan and bag items.  

In the very far left aisle, there are plastic soup spoons used for miso soup, silver chopsticks and ceramic tea pots decorated with traditional Chinese motifs. The Asian Market also carries items like knives and giant cleavers used for chopping meat. Next to that, customers can find dry ingredients like various rice and tapioca flours, mung beans and milk mava powder.  

There’s a frozen aisle where customers find a multitude of frozen products like steamed buns, wonton wraps, red bean pancakes, Daifuku, pa tong ko and spring rolls. Along the back wall, there is produce: chili, daikon radishes, sliced lotus roots, papaya and kohlrabi.  

There are also non-refrigerated goods like bins of ginger and sugar cane. Around here, I also came across various items like preserved duck eggs, dried bean curds, purple ube yam spread and an aisle dedicated to Filipino products.  

There’s also a drink section where you can find Japanese Ramune, Thai grass jelly, coffee with BTS members printed on the cans, boba milk tea in pretty much every flavor and other strange soda brands and flavors you’ve never heard or tried before.  

Around the refrigerated section stands the seafood section. You’ll find murky water tanks filled with live fish and crabs wriggling about. There are butchers working behind a glass counter displaying whole fish like black pomfret, salmon and horse mackerel.  

Most notably, there’s a huge black tub where if you peer inside, you’ll find a bunch of live crabs slowly moving around. There are also smaller tubs that house live mussels, crab and lobster. A small, refrigerated section is also located here in case you want to pick up any frozen scallops or shrimp.  

Around the market there are fun little snacks such as chips, little cakes, gummies and dried seaweed. All the packaging has different languages on it like Chinese, Korean, Thai and sometimes even Arabic or Spanish. Mixed in are aisles dedicated to ingredients like rice vinegar, yakisoba sauce and sesame oil. Walking along here you can see other ingredients such as chili sauces, cans of tuna, sweetened red beans and panko flakes.  

In the back there’s a frozen meat section, which is right next to a bakery and a Chinese restaurant that’s built into the store. The Chinese restaurant also holds a wall of brightly lit claw machines where you can gamble your change away while trying to get that cute bear keychain you want. The bakery has strawberry roll cakes with white cream and fruit parfaits. There’s also a boba tea store in case you get parched. Sometimes they’ll have food vendors in the market. 

If you walk all the way to the far-right wall of the store, you’ll find the noodle section. This is where you’ll find all your dried ramen packs, tom yom krung noodle soup bowls and rice porridge cups. 

The Asian Market is clearly an important cultural center for East Asians in Omaha.  You should consider stopping by if you’re looking for something different to cook or you just want to browse for Asian snacks. Maybe you’re looking to dine at the Chinese restaurant. Whatever it is, I highly recommend coming to the Asian Market.