I finally made it to the new Great Wall Supermarket on Gallows Road in Merrifield, about a quarter mile from Han ah Reum. They aren't yet completely up and running--according to big signs on the walls, they are planning to have sushi, a liquor department and prepared Chinese food, but these departments are not happening yet.

The store is brand new, and is quite a bit cleaner than the funky HAR, In general I would say that probably due to fewer customers and consequently less turnover, the produce wasn't quite as fresh-looking as HAR's--especially the greens. They had several unusual fruits I'd never seen for sale fresh before: mangosteen, rambutan, jujubee, and a couple I can't remember the names of that I'd never heard of before. There were at least a dozen different varieties of pears. I was looking for quinces, but they didn't have any. I did get some nice Muscat grapes and very inexpensive prune plums.

There were many different live and lively fish in their tanks--over at HAR, there were several dead Tilapia in the tank. At Great Wall, the clams are kept in water, and looked quite appetizing. They had a nice variety of fish filets and steaks, as well as whole fish-- though not the many different varieties that HAR has. They had lots of fresh, whole ducks in the meat case. Of course, the ducks with heads were labeled "ducks without heads" and the ducks without heads were labeled "with". The "packed on" date was October 30, (today is October 17), so no one with much of a command of English is keeping an eye on things. They had something I've never seen before: ground pork fat, sold like hamburger, by the pound. Presumably for making sausage. But I bought 2 1/2 pounds and rendered it in a baking pan in the oven, and made some lard, and ended up with a separate tub of crumbly cracklings.

The packaged and canned goods seem similar to HAR--but everything looks very fresh and new. Prices are similar. Lots of room in the parking lot.

Waitman and Mrs. B. kindly offered to take me along on their first sojourn to the Great Wall Supermarket in Merrifield this morning. I had heard that they carried live Dungeness crabs and wanted some.

What an absolute HOOT that place is. For starters, their prices on fresh produce are ridiculously cheap compared to the Safeway. Cauliflower, for instance, was $0.99 a head. The seedless muscat grapes were $1.29 lb., instead of Mr. Safeway's $2.99. (I was very happy to see these because I want to make the braised pork with grapes that's on epicurious.com.) Those tubular net bags of whole garlic that the Metro Market charges $1.39 for one? Three bags for $1 at GW.

But the REAL reason the three of us wanted to go there was because of what we had heard about the seafood department. My imagination is too feeble to have conjured this up. Plus, I've never been to Asia and thus haven't seen the local markets. They had several kinds of live crab. None of it was labeled "Dungeness," but what was called "Canadian Crab" looked like the right thing. So, at $6.99 lb. I bought two large ones. I believe Waitman was looking for sea urchins, but I don't know if he found any.

Waitman was poking around the tanks and found one with live frogs in it. I don't think they were selling them as pets, but who knows? Ditto, the live turtles. There were many, many kinds of whole fish, including lots of live ones in the tanks beneath the counter. The labeling was inadequate for most of these, but they were selling some sort of sole for $1.99 lb.

This is the kind of place that has every canned sauce and condiment for Asian cooking known to man. I had a terrible time just picking out some soy sauce. Too many choices.

I finally bailed and checked out my stuff. As Craig would have said, if he'd come with us, "I can't afford to save this much money."

I wish we had a place like this in the city; but I think our Chinese population left Chinatown for Northern Virginia quite a while ago.

So please tell, Barbara, how were the crabs?

I work right around the corner from that place, and I've been intending to stop in. You're inspiring me to try to take a longer lunch tomorrow and launch a reconnaissance mission. The crabs sound like just the thing for my after-work birthday dinner on Tuesday!

Did you notice if they have prepared foods? I read that they were planning to but hadn't opened that section yet, a couple of weeks ago. Sounds like that could be a good source for a quick lunch to take back to work--better than the alternatives in that shopping center!

The crabs were great! I steamed them earlier in the day, cleaned them (not a lovely task) and then put them back in the steamer to finish cooking and to heat up just before dinner. A very messy, real hands-on kind of meal. I told Craig that if we didn't eat all of it I would pick out the meat and do something else with it on another day. That issue became moot when we picked those bad boys clean.

I did not notice any prepared foods, other than stuff in the freezer case, but I wasn't looking for that, either. As of now, I wouldn't think it would be a lunch alternative. Sorry.

I ventured into The Great Wall after work tonight. What a fun place!

I got a 7-oz package of enoki mushrooms for $0.99, and a healthy sized bunch of green onions for $0.33. Lemons were $0.20 each. Tiny "Shanghai" bok choy were $0.99 per lb. I remember what I purchased, but the selection, quality, and pricing of their produce was very impressive.

Frozen quail were on sale, and since Mr. B doesn't care for them, I got them as a special occasion dinner for my Boston terriers (why can't they eat well, too?). This place will be a great source of small whole fresh fish for them, too (I feed a more "natural" diet to my dogs). I also got a pint of mango ice cream.

OK, seeing the eels slither in their tanks, out of the corner of my eye, set off my flight alarm slightly but I hit the reset button and moved on. I think they must have half a dozen (or more) varieties of live clams. They have live blue crabs (females) for $1.99/lb. I asked for 2 "Canadian" crabs, and was pleased with how lively and large they were. I wasn't too sure about the live scallops, but I'll check back on those. Lots of fish!

I must say that the drive home in the dark down Prosperity Avenue, with the crabs in the back seat rattling around in their plastic bag, was a little unnerving. I reminded myself that the fish guy wouldn't get a lot of repeat business if the crabs escaped their bags in the customers' cars on the way home.

I glanced at everything else quickly, but it was a bit overwhelming to take it all in. I saw 2-3 different kinds of whole chickens (and I do mean whole), and whole ducks. There were packages of all different kinds of parts, although I didn't spot any sweetbreads. They had duck feet.

Although the store itself was not crowded at 6:30 on a Tuesday night, the parking lot was packed because of all the folks going to the Golds Gym next door.

I noticed that what was a Pho restaurant a few doors down in the shopping center has a sign that says a Thai restaurant is opening soon. I hope it's good, and I hope they deliver!

Ah, yes. I was a bit too overwhelmed to notice everything. I thought the produce and, particularly, the mushrooms were at a price point too good to be true. And, I wondered who would buy a chicken that was looking at you. It was the "sea cucumber" and the very large sea snails that gave me the heebie-jeebies. I'll admit to being too much of a wuss.

However, I will be very glad to accompany the "Waitmans" on another excursion. Besides being such wonderful company, they introduced me to Vietnamese sandwiches.