Fortuna's new 8,500-square-foot Asia's Best grocery store (727 S. Fortuna Blvd.) may be a bit overwhelming in a county accustomed to small Asian grocery stores with narrow aisles, but even more so in a town that previously had no Asian grocery stores at all.
To the left, palettes of drinks are stacked and arranged on shelves, from sweet canned coffee to bottles with cubes of nata de coco floating in pastel-colored fruit juice. Freezers line the back wall, three doors packed with steamed buns and dumplings, two more with six kinds of lumpia, beside packs of Filipino, Laotian, Hmong and Chinese sausages. Standalone freezers are packed with tiny chicks, black chickens, bone-in soup stocks and fish, offal, whole, salted and filleted. Refrigerated shelves hold boxes packed with dragon fruit, fresh lemongrass stalks, coconuts pierced with straws, taro and bananas the thickness of a fist. And between the stands are aisles of snack foods, dry rice noodles and condiments, and a dizzying array of instant ramen.
“All my family and friends know I was hesitant to open a big place at first, but my husband likes a challenge,” Feda Ignacio admits, smiling and waving towards the restaurant. After the success of Eureka Asia's Best, despite the small space tucked away behind Sacred Heart Catholic Church (2085 Myrtle St.), Feda and her husband, June Ignacio, were looking to expand. Fortuna seemed like an unlikely choice, but the Ignacios welcomed new and existing customers and enjoyed the exchange of culinary cultures.
“My parents made me who I am,” says June, wearing a buttoned-up Asia's Best vest. They attended high school in Pampanga, a medium-sized city on the Philippine island of Luzon, where her parents ran a grocery store and an associated meat processing and wholesale business. June and Feda also ran a grocery store in Las Vegas, where they imported and distributed food to other stores and casino kitchens.
After moving to the North Coast and earning his MBA from Humboldt State University, June and Feda opened a small shop in Eureka to see what would happen. He says they were wary of focusing too much on Filipino cuisine because the Filipino community here is small. Instead, they broadened their offerings to include foods and ingredients from all over Asia. “When we first opened in Eureka, we were nervous because of the small Asian population,” he says. “But we have a lot of customers who are not Asian,” especially those who have served overseas in the military, such as the Philippines and Japan, and have developed a taste for Asian foods that are less available.
“Asian cuisine, we try to have a little bit of everything,” Feda says, adding that most of the frozen prepared foods, such as Malaysian parathas and a small section of Indian food, are at customer request. The Ignacios say that their Eureka store, which they plan to stay open, has a lot of Laotian, Hmong and Micronesian customers, the latter of whom come in for white and red betel nuts and leaves to chew on. Not so much in Fortuna, where there is more demand for Korean products, fish fillets for sushi and tomahawk steaks in the freezer. Philippine avocado ice cream was initially a surprise to some Mexican customers, but they grew to like it and it has become a favorite item.
The Ignacios say their tastes are simple: They both favor rice crackers wrapped in nori, among a variety of snacks that range from crunchy fried chili to unusual potato sticks smothered in something like lime Pop Rocks. “That's why we get along so well,” Feda laughs mischievously. But they also swap recipes with customers, trying items from their inventory for the first time or in new ways, like a spiced vinegar their white customers use in salad dressings or a recipe for deep-fried turkey tails they learned from a Micronesian customer.
“You can also do this in an air fryer,” June says.
“It tastes better fried,” says Feda, a trained chef and former caterer, holding her nose.
As we walk through the piles of drinks, June explains her plans to add a fish counter and takeout kitchen in the back corner, which she says will take some time, but is in the works. Asia's Best is also a supplier to restaurants and food trucks, and June says she'd like to do more of this in the Eel River Valley. Meanwhile, Feda has a meeting scheduled for today to finish the process of making the store EBT-enabled.
A regular customer, first from Eureka and now from Fortuna, closer to home, came in with a bag of tomatoes for the couple. He and June bumped elbows, and June said, “Thanks, brother.”
June said it doesn't feel like they're starting from scratch in the new location because the couple is seeing regulars they never knew would be driving to Eureka from the Eel River Valley and Southern Humboldt.
June smiled at Feda as she recalled the fresh fish and gifts brought by customers who became friends. “They're the reason we're here.”
Jennifer Fumiko Cahill is the Journal's Arts and Features Editor. She can be reached at (707) 442-1400, ext. 320, or at (email protected). Follow her on Instagram: @JFumikoCahill.
