Organization
Double Dragon Foods
Double Dragon Foods is an Asian grocery store at Maryland Avenue and Rice Street in the North End of St. Paul, Minnesota.[1][2] The medium-sized market serves Southeast Asian communities in particular, including Cambodian, Burmese, Karen, Lao, Thai, Vietnamese, Indonesian and Malaysian shoppers.[3]
History
Double Dragon Foods opened on September 1, 2002.[4] In September 2018 the store's owner was Che Ku, and his nephew Bona Ku was general manager; the Better Business Bureau lists Bona Ku as a director and Lang Klu as manager.[2][4] A Twin Cities Daily Planet article named the owner as Chu Ku and Shing Yang as a manager.[5]
On September 19, 2018, the St. Paul Department of Safety and Inspections closed the store and condemned its building for health and safety violations found in an inspection the day before. The Minnesota Department of Agriculture also cited food storage and preparation violations that day. The owner appealed and asked to reopen. The city required permitted electrical, building and plumbing work and a fix for the rodent problem before the store could reopen.[2] The store was trading again by November 2022.[1]
The store
The store calls itself a full-service specialty grocery with Asian, American, African, Hispanic and Indian foods.[4] Its shelves carry goods from Latin America, the Caribbean, England, Africa, the Middle East and Asia, with aisles of Burmese, Hispanic, African and South Asian products.[5][1] The produce section holds Asian fruits and vegetables, fresh garbanzo beans in the pod, five kinds of bananas, several kinds of potatoes, sweet and hot peppers, tiato leaves, Taiwan cabbage and green tomatoes. Packaged vegetables are labeled by country of origin.[5][1]
The meat and seafood departments sell at least six kinds of shrimp, whelks in the shell, live blue crabs, whole frozen frogs, intestines, cow skin, octopus, golden pompano by the 40-pound (18-kilogram) case, and Hmong pork sausage, hot or mild.[5][1] A sign in the seafood section states the store's commitment to sustainable seafood.[1] The deli kitchen makes hot meals on the premises, wrapped and ready to go, among them Lao fish laab with roasted rice powder and cilantro. It also sells fresh salads, sandwiches, deep-fried meats, boiled peanuts, Asian snacks and kueh.[5][3]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 My Annoying Opinions, Double Dragon Foods, St. Paul (November 2022)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Star Tribune, Owner appeals after St. Paul closes Double Dragon Foods (September 2018)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 A Better Place, Double Dragon Foods
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Better Business Bureau, Double Dragon Foods profile
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Twin Cities Daily Planet, Double Dragon Foods