CityView Magazine

32 | September/October • 2014 By miriam landru food D rive down Yadkin Road toward Fort Bragg, take a right on Santa Fe and another quick right into a small shopping center. Park. Get out of your car. From there, stroll into the doors of Sun Asian Market and be transported to any Pacific country of your choosing. Well, maybe only your appetite and palate will embark on the journey. Sun Asian Market Victor and Mi Rojas opened their grocery establishment eight years ago because they noticed a void in the Fayette- ville/Fort Bragg area. Keeping in mind the area's sizeable Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Southeast Asian and Pacific Islander population, Sun Asian Market was born. e Rojas family is multi-cul- tural. Victor is a native New Yorker and U.S. Army vet- eran who is of Hispanic de- scent. His wife, Mia, is Ko- rean. His twenty-something daughters, Lydia and Linda, both help run the day-to-day operations. Victor believes in quality control with his products. "Our store motto: Treat everyone like your mom and dad…if you wouldn't give it to them, you don't give it to the customer!" Products from China, ailand, Philippines, Hawaii, Viet- nam, Korea, Japan, Jamaica and more stay in stock. Sun also carries a small variety of Goya products to satisfy the Rojas' Puerto Rican side. e small, yet mighty market receives in- ventory from 30 vendors from New York to Los Angeles (who receive their product from all over the world) and supplies 22 From Asia to Latin America, shop Fayetteville's international grocers All You Can Eat restaurants in Cumberland County. Restaurants you proba- bly frequent like neighboring eatery Shila's (Korean) and pho fan favorite, Grilled Ginger (Vietnamese). Victor and Mia both do their research on items they put on the shelves. Only the freshest produce and the most popular items from each country apply. "I try to take the best from every country and introduce it here," stressed Mia. Pocky Chocolate, a favorite in Japan, is the fastest moving item in the store and most importantly, "a new flavor is introduced every six months." Currently, strawberry and chocolate are in stock at Sun. Sun carries a vast selection of the best coffee and tea from across Asia, including one particular kind that Oprah Win- frey endorsed several months back: Wulong tea. Always up for a challenge, Victor searched for the tea. "When Oprah says something, every woman wants it and I want to know what they want!" Aer four months, the tea was found and now it flies off the shelf. While the Rojas family advo- cates dining out when want- ing to experience interna- tional flavor, they also want to help the average customer know that they too can cook ethnic food. "A lot of Americans are not educated on food from other countries. I want to show them they can cook as well as anyone else," explained Mi. Super Compare Super Compare, located on Santa Fe and Morganton Road is perhaps the largest Latin American grocery store in the area. Super Compare has its origin in New York, but has sev- eral locations throughout North Carolina. e Fayetteville

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