ShopEasy is a great little shop brimming with real finds. They have all sorts of fruit and veg here…read moreincluding coconuts which look like they've just been knocked off a shy. You can pick up your plantain, sweet potatoes and yam here. I spotted a selection of saltfish to choose from and about 20 types of fish and chicken seasoning. My friends and I love cooking soul food so I was straight onto them about this gem of a shop. They also have a small range of Afro Caribbean hair products. As you go in on the left they have tons of spices. The cold drink fridge contained Bigga and Tropical Rhythms which I'm a big fan of. Another test of a good establishment: 55p for a can of Dr Pepper.

This supermarket is one of my favourite independent places to shop, based in the heart of Soho…read moreRoad. I try and shop here every 2 - 3 weeks, and the discounted prices on shopping to be had in here, are gob-smackingly good! The ideal place to get all your authentic ingredients for that all special curry and what not. I buy all of my asain, Indian ingredients in here and more. The small packets of spices are convenient and the cheapest that you can get! Everything from the Basmati Tilda rice, flour, nuts, great juices, tea, snacks, lentils, oils, juices, cereals, shop here first. You'll be hooked, with famous brands it's a shame they don't offer some kind of reward scheme! My tip, try the bags of 'Paneer' in the fridge section, on your right when you walk in (past the big bags of onions....) at £3.99. Fry into a tomato curry, just delightful and beats takeaway food. I find I always fill my trolley shopping in here. The prices ARE THE BEST THAT YOU CAN GET! They close early on Wednesdays and only the far till on your right accepts debit cards. They even have free asian newspapers for you to take away, if you can read them. What makes this place extra special is staff at the door will look after your shopping bags and give you a numbered ticket whilst you shop and browse! 1 Hour free car parking is available for shoppers, there after, it's £1 per hour. Enjoy. A great gem and a much valued and appreciated store for all communities.

S&D Supermarket is literally based in the centre of Soho Road and my parents do come here whenever…read morethey are in Handsworth. Would I come here again? Only if I am in Handsworth and am desperate to buy Indian ingredients. There are closer green grocer stores that have Indian spices and plus there are high retail stores that sell Indian ingredients needed for making curries. But the prices at S&D Supermarket are excellent and they won't be beaten anywhere else. From tea to Indian snacks and savouries to cereals, these are some of the things you can buy from this supermarket. This is an excellent store for the locals and those living in Birmingham. To top it all off, the staff are top class here and they will help you out. If you do need guidance on any of the products at this supermarket, they will be there. There is car parking on-site and parking will be free for an hour. After that you will be charged £1 for every hour.

You know that thing when you really want to eat some sheep's uterus but just can't find it for love…read moreor money? It is such a pain. Thankfully, you'll find it easily at this excellent Chinese supermarket. If scoffing ovine reproductive organs isn't your thing, you'll find plenty more intriguing and delicious items stacked on the shelves. They stock lots of fresh fruit and veg, especially the sort of stuff you'd struggle to find at Tesco. The spices and teas are great value. Adventurous cooks will happily spend an hour browsing the aisles. It is one part shopping trip, one part food education. No trip to the Chinese Quarter is complete with a visit to Day In.

When I first started coming here, I was a little unadventurous, just choosing a few bags of chicken…read morenoodles then apologetically scurrying out again like a fish out of his own cultural water. In the last 5 years though, I've been doing frequent shopping trips to Day-In to supplement my regular visits to high street supermarkets. When I'm in here, I'm of course mainly browsing the seaweed collections, buying ovine innards, or treating the whole thing like some kind of tourist experience, like I would visiting the Sea Life centre. My first stop is the fridge. I pick up two blocks of tofu, (the firm sort that will hold together with the rigors of stir-frying) and some OKF aloe vera drink. This beverage contains both the juice and the gel from the plant, and its the world's best seller. A glass of this when hungover or feeling run-down is a welcome rescue remedy. In the tinned aisle I picked up some mock duck. Made with gluten, it's a substitute for the real thing, something that vegans would welcome as somthing they can sink their teeth into. Then some soy sauce, a bag of chillies and a tin of coconut milk. The soy sauce is Pearl River Bridge, a rich, dark soy that is superior to the kind that you get in regular supermarkets and at just 58p for 150ml, its around a third of the price. The same goes with the chillies; a bag of bright red ones of the bird's-eye's variety at a fraction of the cost that you'd expect to pay elsewhere. Next stop-sauces and spices! You'll find them in the last aisle. I pick up Rendang paste (best for beef, good for tofu), and some tom yum paste which I'll have on another day with some prawns thrown in. These sauces ain't healthy. They're packed with salt and sugar and some with MSG but boy, do they taste good. I balance the yang of the above with the yin of some fresh century pears. Apple shaped, and sweeter than say, a comice, these pudgy fruits are worth discovering. I then grab four packets of Nissin noodles. What I like about these is that often they have a paste included as well as a soup powder for added complexities. Try the Tokyo Shoyu variety to challenge your tastebuds.

Globe is a food shop specialising in Oriental ingrediants. It's fairly large, so they have quite a…read moregood selection. Many of their goods have labels entirely in Chinese, which makes them a bit tricky to decipher if you only speak English, but you can often guess what they are. The staff are very willing to help and very knowledgeable, but not all of them speak English fluently enough to help with the language barrier. They can, however, point you to the right types of noodles or soy sauce for a particular job - there are subtleties in this that you will never master in Sainsburys!

Sainsbury's at Martineau Square is probably the largest supermarket style store in Birmingham city…read morecentre, at least in the Sainsbury's brand anyway but it is far from the best. The store was really understaffed when I came in, it felt like they were ready to shut in the middle of the day with no manned tills or counters, the store was even really dark to get around (perhaps a power outage in part of the store), yet there was no staff members apologising or offering assistance. Other reviews suggest it isn't even a lighting issue and it has been going on for weeks and months, which surely makes no sense: as someone who visits Sainsbury's stores across England and Wales, I've not seen anything like it. I couldn't get any of the items I came in for which strangely were on sale in a smaller Sainsbury's store on Colmore Row, it is a large supermarket but I just wasn't impressed with the selection. The ramped enterance into the store remains dangerous and is an accident waiting to happen as it involves a sharp and narrow corner blocked by a wall, I really don't know how health and safety approved it as it is too narrow to have two lanes and all it takes is to people coming up at the same time (and then unable to go back) and BANG. The store really does need to review their staffing levels, ramped enterance and lighting as a matter of urgency.

I am reviewing this branch of sainsbury's on the one thing I get there and thats the salad…read morebowl.....I know this is a controversial 5* review but it's actually really good! For £2.95 you can have yourself a medium salad bowl packed full of bean, beetroot, red pepper, chickpea and other salads which I have to say tastes great! Big shouts to the pea and mint salad which gives the whole bowl freshness and a whole load of extra flavour....I strongly recommend going in on that scoop for a lunchtime win! I know you are thinking.....supermarket salad bowl.....it's going to be rubbish.....but this one shames other supermarkets. I need to say that compared to Morrisons dried out salads this is on another level. If you want a cheap lunch on the move and want to be healthy in a savage world of burger temptation.....give this a go.

Dessi Cake and Sweet Centre is a vegan confectionary where you can purchase take-away food or book…read morecatering for a function. The dated look of the shop and compact size is deceiving to how delicious their food is. Unlike most other sweet shops, if you order food for a function, they will always make it fresh for the day. Therefore, the Indian sweets will be touchably soft and smooth, melting in your mouth as you tuck in! They also make cakes, which is great for vegans because there are few cake shops that offer egg-free cakes. They are not as creative with their designs as I have seen elsewhere but the cakes taste good, which is most important! The staff members are polite and friendly. The prices are mediocre for the local area.

What a butcher. I'm first tempted inside by spying the larder section of the shop. Displayed within…read moreare individual and family sized pies of steak & kidney, mince & onion, and lamb pasties. All the pastry has the unmistakable individual hallmarks of good, shop-made products. Eric Lyons also stock home-made pickles, chutneys, and the more unusual Madhuban Honey Garden (the perfect brand name for Indian influenced cuisine made in rural England), fresh and hand-made curry sauces. On the drive over here I was discussing with my driver my considering being a vegan. All that is in doubt now that I am positioned over the meat cabinet on the other side of the shop. It's filled with traditional chops and steaks, and some more unusual products. Turkey Balti sausages are another example of Indian meets English, and while I wont' be buying them in the warmth of late May, they are a top contender for Boxing Day supper. We leave with two chilli burgers and two minted lamb burgers, for an early evening barbeque, but I'll return for a proper mission here later this year and I'll be sure to have plenty of room in the freezer.

This is an amazing family butchers - always busy and exceptionally clean. They have one half of the…read moreshop for traditional meat and more modern marinated meats, and the other part of the shop sells fab home made pies and ready-made meals. They also sell deli-type products, and bakery products, all of exceptionally high quality.

The signage on this store makes it look like something out of a computer game. I love it! It's a…read moretiny little store but manages to fit quite a lot in. Intrigued as I am by anything oriental I decided to go in and buy some 'snacks'. Now if you, like me, have a bit of an obsession with all things Asian then you will have probably tried some pretty weird stuff like Wagashi sweets and bean curd buns. Nothing, however, could have prepared me for the sensation overload that is 'Homemade Mocha'. Trust me; you want to steer clear of these freaky little snacks. Falling somewhere, aesthetically, between a willy and a dumpling, these dusty, odd little sausages will make you think you are eating something very raw and very wrong. They come in flavours such as 'Red Bean' and 'Green Tea' and are clearly not worth the £2 you will pay out of curiosity. I ate my whole pack anyway so that I got my money's worth. I'll probably be dead by morning or at least have a few tentacles. Other delights to be found in this store are Hello Panda biscuits (amazing!), noodle snacks, wasabi peas and 'Ball Cakes'. Hello Kitty fans will be in for a surprise when they chow down on those BBQ flavoured seaweed crisps. YUMZ!

This store is irresistible to me, and I find myself drawn in to explore the array of quirky…read moreoriental produce every time I walk past. The tiny shop somehow manages to stock masses of unusual food, from Japanese sweets to herbal flavoured jellies to noodles to biscuits. The fridge inside is also packed with healthy cold drinks and ice teas. I mainly go here to purchase herbal teas, particularly goji berry infusion. Although this specific tea is little pricey, the taste alone is well worth the expense. I'd describe Anytime Snacks as a condensed, cuter version of Sing Fat Ltd. Although saying this, I often find more products here that tempt my taste. Additionally, staff are very friendly and always talk to you and smile when you are inside the store. Whereas at Sing Fat, the staff rarely acknowledge that you are there. Anytime Snacks is well worth a visit if you like bright colours, little oddities, sweets or want to explore food that you've never tried before.