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This article ran in the Rocky Mountain News on July 12, 2003.

A tour of Asia in Denver
A selected look at businesses in three of the area's hubs

By Gil Asakawa, Special to the News
July 12, 2003

SOUTH FEDERAL

1. Truong An Videos & Gifts

Fresh fish is among the offerings at the Little Saigon Market. Photo by Maria Avila / Rocky Mountain News

333 S. Federal Blvd., (303) 936-5004
What's inside: Truong An sells items as diverse as plastic statuettes of Buddha, expensive furnishings, clothing, Vietnamese videos, CDs and toys (including plastic samurai swords).
Check it out: You'll also find a stock of those popular "lucky bamboo" plants.

2. Little Saigon Supermarket
375 S. Federal Blvd, (303) 937-8860
What's inside: Vietnamese pop music blasts a welcome at this Far East Center highlight, a jampacked grocery with stuff you won't find at your neighborhood supermarket.
Check it out: Along one aisle is a staggering selection of instant noodles, but not just Japanese ramen: there are packages from Thailand, Korea, Indonesia and Taiwan. The produce section hums with shoppers picking from among papayas the size of footballs to a selection of greens that would never find their way into a typical Western meal. The seafood section offers fresh live crab and lobster, and the meat market stocks chicken feet and pork tails for Asian soups.

3. Bakery Vinh-Xuong
375 S. Federal Blvd., (303) 922- 4968
What's Inside: A crowded shop with coolers displaying a variety of fresh Vietnamese dessert pastries and puddings (some look more like Jell-O) as well as meat-filled pastries.
Check it out: The specialty is a French-Vietnamese sandwich that reflects the country's colonial past: Vietnamese ham, barbecued pork and pressed chicken meat on a short baguette, flavored with vinegary pickled vegetables and long slices of fresh jalapeņo peppers.

4. Richard Lee's Noodle House
472 S. Federal Blvd., (303) 937-2946
What's inside: Large but sparse, it has some of the area's best noodles.
Check it out: Noodles are the comfort dish of Asia. Richard Lee's makes its own noodles and offers them in various combinations, including Chinese and Vietnamese recipes.

5. New Saigon Restaurant
630 S. Federal Blvd., (303) 936- 4954
What's inside: One of the area's longest-running Vietnamese restaurants, having opened in 1987.
Check it out: It's won a slew of local dining awards with one of the area's largest menus of traditional Vietnamese dishes. For years it was the only place that non-Asians knew and patronized along Federal.

6. Pho '79
781 S. Federal Blvd., (303) 922-2930
What's inside: Visit this modest spot (there's also a Westminster location) for the Vietnamese noodle soup pho, which has become a popular alternative to Western fast food.
Check it out: Pho is served with rice noodles enhanced by a variety of meats (such as tasty rare beef slices), accompanied by a side dish heaped with bean sprouts, jalapeņos and basil leaves. Pho '79's soup base will make you a pho addict after one visit.

7. J's Noodles

J's Noodles cook Edie Yooniem serves Shrimp Pad Thai at the South Federal strip's oldest Thai restaurant. It's also the only place in town that serves black rice, a rice pudding served with coconut milk. Photo by Maria Avila / Rocky Mountain News

945 S. Federal Blvd., (303) 922-5495
What's inside: The area's oldest Thai restaurant sits inconspicuously in a tiny strip mall among Chinese and Vietnamese restaurants.
Check it out: It's the only place in town that serves black rice, a warm, sweet purplish-brown rice-pudding dessert served with rich coconut milk. It also serves the more conventional mangoes with sticky rice during the summer.

KOREAN AURORA

8. Komart
2000 S. Havana St., (303) 369-2321
What's inside: A supermarket takes up most of the space in this mini-mall, with one end devoted to several shops and a food court that includes a bakery and a Korean restaurant as well as a tiny counter that makes sushi delivered daily to Sakura Square.
Check it out: The food court serves Korean dishes but also includes ATA Sushi, a tiny Korean-run sushi counter that supplies sushi daily to Pacific Mercantile, the downtown Denver Japanese grocery store. In the supermarket you'll find a variety of Korean and Japanese foods, produce, snacks and drinks. Stacks of red pepper powder are available everywhere, and one corner of the supermarket is dedicated to kimchi, the peppery, garlicky pickled napa cabbage that's a staple of Korean food.

9. New York Bakery
10720 E. Iliff Ave., (303) 743-0001
What's inside: A small bakery that sells a variety of pastries filled with sweet red or green beans, with some molded into delicate shapes. Check it out: Try the meat-filled pastries, including ones filled with sweet barbecued pork and one embedded with sliced-up hot dogs.

10. Seoul Korean Barbecue
12091 E. Iliff Ave., (303) 671-0003
What's inside: This spot, a great place to be introduced to Korean cuisine, lets you cook your own food on small gas grills built into the tabletops.
Check it out: Order galbi (short pieces of beef or pork ribs) or bulgogi (thin-sliced marinated beef, chicken or shrimp) and you'll get the marinated raw meat to grill at your leisure. Along with the meat, diners are served a variety of traditional side dishes such as tofu, bean sprouts, cold spinach, pickled vegetables, clear noodles and kimchi. The food is mix-and-match - you place the cooked meat on top of your rice bowl and garnish with the side dishes as desired. The meal is topped off with a traditional Korean dessert, a cold, slightly sweet rice drink.

SAKURA SQUARE

11. Pacific Mercantile
1925 Lawrence St., (303) 295-0293
What's inside: The heart of Denver's Japanese community is always bustling with shoppers buying their weekly supply of Japanese food.
Check it out: The shop sells an array of cultural items as diverse as kimonos, lacquerware, origami books and Japanese cooking utensils. Pacific is also a great source for the myriad styles of sembei (rice crackers) and a variety of snacks and candies you won't find anywhere else.

12. Yoko's Express
1255 19th St., (303) 292-2323
What's inside: Yoko's expanded last year from a handful of tables by adding a new dining area with a dozen more. But it still feels tiny, and its menu will make any Japanese recall the dinners their mother used to make.
Check it out: It's home cooking, Japanese-style, from the fried pork cutlet smothered in Japanese curry over rice to several noodle dishes. It's also the only place you'll find Spam musubi (Yoko calls it the "Rocky Roll") - basically a slice of Spam served like sushi on rice. It's a Hawaiian delicacy, if Spam can be called a delicacy, and it's delicious.

13. Akebono
1255 19th St. (303) 295-1849
What's inside: A cozy, well-appointed restaurant, which also features a small sushi bar, located on the mezzanine level of Sakura Square.
Check it out: It's the only place in town where you can order "chawan-mushi," a traditional egg custard served piping hot with bits of chicken, shrimp and vegetables suspended in the custard.