Madhav's is pretty famous across the city of Cardiff and beyond. Shoppers and diners are willing to…read morecome from as far away as Newport, Bridgend and Swansea, making special trips to visit this Indian mini-market and restaurant. And it's worth it! The food is all homemade by Pushpa, who jointly owns the business. Originally hailing from Maharastra, whose state capital is Mumbai (Bombay), on the West Coast of India, and situated quite centrally to this continent-sized country, Pushpa effortlessly blends Southern Indian style cooking with Northern dishes as well as regional specialities. Your mouth is watering even before you cross the threshold! Similar in many ways to The Bristol Sweet Mart, one of my favourite shops in Bristol, Madhav has to be one of my favourite places in Cardiff as well. Similarly, Madhav's stocks an enormous range of dry food, fresh vegetables and sundry products, making it possible to complete a comprehensive shop, no different, in many respects, to visiting the local supermarket... except there's one very distinct difference... Madhav's is a whole lot more fun! Pushpa has been in business on Lower Cathedral Road for over 30 years, and without too much effort she has fallen in love with the Welsh. There's no need to try at something that comes naturally, and of course, the Welsh, being such an open and friendly bunch of people, definitely make things easy! She is quick to show her appreciation for the loyalty and respect they have shown her over the years, and calls them 'my Welsh people' in a way that moves me at a pretty profound level.

This bustling Indian business in the Riverside area of Cardiff (and very close to the city centre)…read morecombines a grocery store selling mainly Asian products with a simple but clean restaurant space. It's incredibly popular with local residents of many nationalities, and once you've shopped and eaten there it's easy to see why. First off, the restaurant (although more 'cafe' in look and feel) serves up delicious, spicy home made food spanning cuisine from both North and South India, all of it vegetarian. Just don't expect to get an alcoholic drink here, as they don't serve any! Meanwhile, the shop part of the business is always well-stocked with a fascinating array of exotic products ranging from fresh vegetables to tins and jars, grains and biscuits. I can easily lose an hour just reading labels and discovering new things here, and it's a great place to pick up more unusual Indian ingredients that the mainstream supermarkets still don't stock. Highly recommended.

Masala Bazaar is a mini supermarket much like Co-op and stocks a variety of food and other products…read moreit also has a similar theme to an ALDI or LIDL providing a whole range of products, specialising in south east asian food. Large jars of spices, curries, ethnic foods that would sometimes be difficult to find in other supermarkets. It's not exactly a wholesale retailer but provides multipack items. I would recommend if you want to stock up or if your looking for a packet of jalapeño crisps or something exotic. 10% discount for students.

Okay, so there aren't many times when you are looking to buy 36 packs of poppadoms in one box. And…read moremaybe you don't need a vat of chilli sauce... but Masala Bazaar is absolutely fantastic! You can buy a whole range of ethnic foods, as well as some other more mainstream types of foods. Most of them do come in bulk, which can be a little problematic (and why I've only awarded 4 stars for what would otherwise be a five star place) but you can sometimes manage to find smaller loads. The service doesn't stand out in my memory as being brilliant but as we were buying the food we were all talking and trying to organise the meal that we were having as a house (there are 7 of us, with two vegetarians, so it took some doing!) so it's probably just that we kind of ignored them...

I really like the Eastern Chinese Supermarket, which is just down the road from the Millennium…read moreStadium and bus and railway stations. I visit here reasonably often as its next door to The China Supermarket. Despite being considerably smaller than its neighbour, it is well stocked in orderly rows, and tends to be more colourful. It is often busier too. There's always a smattering of people milling around lending the place a breezy vibe. I think that they come here, like I do, for the fresh produce, as it's of a really high quality, and the range is exceptional. Ling, one of the owners, is often serving behind the counter. She's really friendly, and more than happy to point you in the right direction, if you are in a rush. The prices tend to be slightly higher here, but despite the scale of China Supermarket, the Eastern Chinese Supermarket stocks a number of things that you can't buy next door. I recommend that you set aside an afternoon and visit both stores, buying something from each! Heaven!

If you're Chinese and wondering where you can get what you need to do some proper home-cooking in…read moreWales, look no further. I've learned how to cook a bunch of traditional Chinese dishes from my grandma, but was legitimately afraid that I wouldn't be able to find any of the sauces in Wales (unless I ordered online for extortionate prices). After a quick search, I found Rachel W.'s review for Eastern Chinese Supermarket and returned home with a huge haul of materials that I'd never thought I'd find! ~ Atmosphere: To be honest, it's a pretty small and dingy shop. I can imagine that if you're here and you don't know exactly what you're looking for, it may be difficult to manage. ~ Customer Service: I was served by a middle-aged Mandarin woman and when I couldn't find tian mian jiang, she was very helpful with pointing me in the right direction. She also helped me double-bag all my purchases when I didn't even ask! --- I thought the prices were fair for what I got, but to be honest I haven't been to any other Chinese grocers to compare. Even if it is a bit more pricey, I don't feel by much though as it was all affordable and cheaper than if you would order offline. I'm well happy about my visit to Eastern Chinese Supermarket and left giddy and excited that I could put all my grandma's recipes to actual use now!

Tucked a street behind both City Road and Albany Road is this curio of a shop…read more I suppose the name should be a clue, but World Foods looks like your average corner shop from the outside. Wander in though and you'll find yourself confounded. This tiny shop is chock a block full of every conceivable ingredient you'd need to make an authentic Indian banquet. And authenticity seems to be the order of the day as whenever I have ventured forth in here there always seem to be at least a handful of old Indian ladies dressed in luminous saris comparing spices, rices and prices. Breads, cakes and meats are also stacked high, with only a fridge of coke cans as a concession to the corner shop ethos. The easiest way to walk here is to cut in off Albany Road by the side of the school, where the increasing rare public toilet stands and along Plasnewydd Road.

Though it is called a "spices centre" it also has Happy Shopper / Nisa Today blood running through…read moreits heart. So it you need a tin of value potatoes to go with your biryani mix then you're in the right joint. Kairali Spices Centre also packs a fairly impressive booze selection within its four walls, but the main reason to hunt out the place is for the bags of Periyar's Pappada Boli. For £1.30 of your hard earned cash you'll receive the crunchiest snack to stalk the Earth. The thinking behind it is genius. It must have something along the lines of, "Hmmm poppadums are pretty crunchy, but how can we ramp it up? By Jove I think I've got it, why don't we fry the buggers to form a triple layered snack of teeth rattling potency?" And God bless them they did it. They're awesome. Another good reason to pop along is for the moustache the fella who works there sports, a simple quality piece of facial hirsute horticulture of which I am immensely jealous.

I love popping into Kairali Spices Centre to pick up a few essentials, or to replenish my spice…read morejars, because this shop is run by a really lovely guy who hails from Ernakulam in Kerala. When I was in my twenties I used to live in Fort Cochin in Southern India, which is on a peninsular adjacent to Ernakulam. I used to take the 20 minute ferry over to the mainland pretty often. Sometimes I'd go just to feel the cool breeze of the backwaters brushing against my skin, and would always visit the Indian Coffee House for Puri and chutney or vegetable cutlets followed by the fantastic muddy coffee that I grew to love. It's rare to meet someone who knows where I have been. Talking to Sunny makes it more real to me. It brings the past into the present, and puts a smile on my face. Fort Cochin still has a booming spice trade, with many wholesalers lining the Bazaar Road which fronts the waters edge. The Kersalans were an adventurous lot, way before Marco Polo and Columbus, and were trading spices and silks with the Chinese thousands of years ago. So, it is small wonder that Sunny has a shop that makes such a prominent mention of the spices that he sells, despite the fact that his shop stocks groceries, including fresh veg, frozen and tinned food, as well as a plethora of spices and condiments, along side a good selection of alcohol and tobacco.

The Continental Deli has an exotic mix of south east Asian and Mediterranean food stuffs, the kind…read moreof food you cannot find anywhere else because they don't stock it. The store sells a variety of produce but specializes in Halal meat and poultry. The store is a community shop that meets the needs of the roath residents being quite a small store means a lot is jammed into the isles. As with many market styled shops of this nature the general student and western customer is a bit of a novelty, the staff offer some great recommendations if you get the inclination to try some new cuisine.

Seeing long queues snaking away from the till inside the Continental Deli, I've sometimes wondered…read morewhat this place is doing right that other similar but far quieter businesses in this neighbourhood are doing wrong? Well, first off, I think they have a fantastic range of continental foods and more exotic ingredients on offer that isn't really matched by other shops around here. Also, this place doesn't feel like it's exclusively aimed at a particular target market - it may sell Halal meat but it attracts all sorts of different customers, and you never feel uncomfortable looking around. And, finally, it's got a charming atmosphere about it, making you want to spend time browsing around - whereas in most supermarkets I am dashing about and can't wait to get out.

This well stocked shop is packed with curiosities (curious to a Westerners eyes at least). Produce…read moreranges from red tofu in an eathenware jar to frozen dim sum pastry and an array of functional and decorative kitchenware. A lot of the food is labelled in both English and Chinese, those goods which aren't labelled in English can be translated by one of the friendly staff and unfamiliar food stuffs explained. Most of the ingredients here are really cheap compared to supermarkets. The dried nuts, beans and fruit are particularly good value and I often buy my wolf berries here. Man Fung also stock a fantastic selection of Sake (rice wine), which I am rather partial to. Top tip: Good place to get presents for your foody friends, as a lot of the packaging is beautiful and the produce unusual. Man Fung Store is open Monday-Sunday late.

A small but well-stocked Chinese supermarket, split across two rooms so if you glance in the window…read moreyou'll think it's only half the size it actually is. I pop here all the time for cooking sauces, it has a great range and is generally a bit cheaper, as well as having a more interesting range, than somewhere like Tesco. There are a lot of snack and novelty items- Pocky (biscuit sticks with different flavours of chocolate on- very nice with coffee), all sorts of different nuts and strange seaweed snacks. You can buy things like noodles in bulk. To be honest I would personally avoid some of the frozen meats here, especially the seafood stuff- not because I think it's dodgy, but because a lot of the stuff stocked here doesn't have any English cooking instructions on it and I'd be scared of poisoning myself by cooking something wrongly but that's just me being cowardly. As long as you're not a coward, and you like Chinese food, then this is a great place to get what you need for Chinese cooking at home. Enjoy.

I've moved away from Cardiff now, but I used to live just a five minute walk away and I miss it so…read moremuch. For a small shop, it is super compact and has a really good selection of ambient, fresh and frozen Korean and Japanese products (as well as some from other East and South East Asian countries) when considering the square footage. The prices are all reasonable for imported products, so I've never felt that I was spending too much money. The staff are really friendly. One time, when I was buying a 5kg bag of sushi rice, one of the storekeepers approached me and said that they could keep the bag behind the counter to save me from having to carry it around, which I really appreciated. They're also very approachable, which is good if you're looking for something unfamiliar. This is a family run business which has been in the neighbourhood for over twenty years, and hopefully many more years to come for when I eventually move back to Wales!

One of my housemates went to Asia in her gap year and really misses the food. So, whenever we…read morestumble across a place that might take her back to those suppers in Japan, we always investigate. This little shop on Woodville Road is run by wonderfully friendly people. (They said hello when we came in, they asked us if we needed any help and they said thank you when we left even though, on that occassion, we didn't buy anything.) The shop itself is bigger than it looks when you first enter and is crammed full of some really exciting looking food. I'm not sure what they're called but the icecream that's coated in some kind of rice... those are good! It's also nice to be able to buy soy sauce in a reasonable sized bottle - the ones you get at the supermarket are ridiculously small. The prices are fantastic, especially considering how far its all been flown, so I was extremely impressed.