Asian Treats at Pacific Food in Fairfield
Pacific Food is a unique Asian market open almost three months in a small shopping center just as Blackrock Turnpike splits into Tunxis Hill. The small footprint of the grocer packs a punch – offering counter-style favorites such as Vietnamese sandwiches, Japanese-style smoothies in a rainbow of flavors and a decided-upon favorite, traditional Chinese Bubble Tea.
The menu also includes a variety of noodle soups and appetizers such as shrimp or pork spring rolls and a roast chicken wrap. Dessert comes in the form of Chinese-style deep fried sesame balls.
For a first taste, we ordered the Vietnam-style ham sandwich, which features a sweet ham, topped with a slaw of carrots, turnips, cucumbers and cilantro on French bread. Other variations include BBQ chicken or beef, roast beef, paté, and the staple fried fish. Smoothie flavors range from mango to avocado to honeydew, but we opted to wash down our sandwich with Jasmine Green Tea with “regular” bubbles (made out of dark colored tapioca pearls). The tea is served cold and with a straw large enough to let the bubbles through. For anyone who has never tried Bubble Tea – the bubbles pop in your mouth adding a juicy update to the chilled drink. Tea flavors can be mixed and matched with the various bubbles. Combinations might be watermelon with yogurt flavored bubbles or Lychee with a rainbow jelly. Topping off the meal with a sesame ball – the fresh-baked (and then fried) sweet is the perfect way to round out a delicious (and relatively inexpensive) lunch on a day you’re typical salad just won’t do.
The best part of Pacific Food? The encouragement to try your hand at some of the Asian delicacies served behind the counter. Everything they make to order can also be re-created at home with the help of several full shelves of traditional ingredients. All the meats for the Vietnamese-style sandwiches are available frozen alongside several cases of refreshments such as a collection of Japanese sodas (Lychee is a favorite flavor across the board). Makings for noodles and noodle soup include everything from the rice-based dry noodle to the various sauces used to spice up the dish. Pho ingredients and seasoning are also available. Coconut milk, Asian-style cookies and sweets such as I-mei crème wafers come in various flavors, rice paper for spring rolls, codfish silk jerky, milkfish and shrimp balls, hot and sour paste, the list goes on and on.
The grocer certainly fills a void in the area of packaged foods and Asian ingredients. And with a reasonably priced menu, you can experiment different flavors all you want before cooking up your own Asian feast.
Pacific Foods 1561 Black Rock Turnpike, Fairfield (203) 220-9450
Asian, Fairfield, Specialty Market, Vietnamese
Reader Comments (10)
"The grocer certainly fills a void in the area of packaged foods and Asian ingredients."
Less than a mile away from Pacific Food there is a Cambodian market and several small Vietnamese markets filled to the brim with Asian ingredients.
I had a great sandwich there a few weeks ago and after the article here went yesterday only to find it closed and the phone out of service. SAD
@Norman-Are you saying it is closed for business?!! Dang it... I knew we should have posted this article sooner.
Nooooooo! It can't be out of business! My heart leapt when I read this post! Does anyone know for sure? I'll likely drive by today - I've been wishing for a bubble tea venue in Fairfield for over a year now. By the way, the "Vietnamese sandwich" you described is called a banh mi, and if done right, is one of the best sandwiches in existence. It combines salty, sweet, spicy, soft and crunchy in one sensory-thrilling bite, especially if made on the correct bread, which is a baguette made with rice flour as well as wheat so it's lighter and crispier at the same time.
Very sorry to see this place close. They were the nicest people. And the bahn mi, made with Vietnamese ham, pork roll and pate, was delicious.
Hey travels
Thanks for the info would have never guesses! Try Pho Saigon in Bridgeport might delight your apparent sophisticated and discerning palate
Okay, so here's the skinny on this place, at least according to the guy who owns the haircut venue next door: the store/restaurant was opened by one set of business partners, who did not get along. They split, and one of them teamed up with another business partner. They didn't get along, either. So now a new team is about to re-open it, I believe under the name "Saigon Deli," but I was too excited to hear that it was re-opening to remember the name I saw decorating the huge banner lying across the floor inside the closed shop. Will someone who lives close by keep an eye out to see if it opens again, and let us know? Hope springs eternal that my bubble tea and banh mi cravings can be fulfilled right here in FF.
@Travels4Food- Brilliant reconnaissance. Thanks for keeping us posted.
OK travels 4 we commission you to update this forum
I live off Tunxis Hill and drove by last night....looks like it's open, complete with sanwiches and bubble tea!!