The East Is Fed

Sydney Morning Herald

Tuesday August 19, 2008

Helen Greenwood

This expert food retailer has the length and breadth of Asian products covered.

RICHARD YONG has a dry sense of humour. He smiles when I tell him that it will take more to surprise me than a packet labelled "pork head meat" (it looks like brawn).

Then we share a huge laugh at a bouillon tin marked "Dai Pai Dong free range chicken powder" with ingredients listing flavour enhancers and free-range chicken extract.

They are a couple of the thousands of products Yong has on the shelves of Vplus, his massive supermarket in Campsie.

The store has just reopened after extensive renovations and we're cruising the aisles. The breadth of his stock is breathtaking.

Yong has a mainly Chinese clientele, with a smattering of Indian, Korean and Japanese. Most prefer to buy brands from their home cities and provinces.

So, in the huge section of packet seasoning for steamboat, you'll find combinations from Sichuan, Guangzhou, Beijing and Shanghai, for every meat from mutton to chicken.

Everything about this brightly lit, 1000-square-metre supermarket is big. The tofu section has dozens of types and brands. The bundles of Chinese greens fill half an aisle and are bought directly from three farms. The butchery has eight sizes of boiling chickens, every cut of pork from "hands" to heads, pigeons and large rolls of scotch fillet at bargain prices.

The frozen food department is especially impressive. Yong has installed cabinet freezers above the floor freezers, which is not your usual shop fitting.

They are filled with more variety than you can imagine. The fish section is a snapshot of the Asian fishing industry. Prawns, cuttlefish, pomfret, tilapia - name a popular species in Asian cooking and it's here.

Dumplings and wontons can be measured by the metre. The vegetarian section has every kind of protein in a faux form, from duck to prawns.

This store is one of four owned by Yong - the others are in Liverpool, Marrickville and Gosford. He's an experienced food retailer who began his career in Canada.

Born in Sarawak in 1951, Yong went to university in Vancouver. To earn money part-time as a student, he worked for General Foods. He joined the company after graduating and stayed for eight years. He then came to Sydney to be with his brother and worked for the Burlington Centre Supermarket in Haymarket for 12 years.

In 2001, he opened this Vplus Supermarket in Campsie as the majority of the local ethnic population was shifting from Korean to Chinese. His Liverpool branch, managed by Karen Te, is more mixed, with Filipino and Indian customers dominant.

His supermarkets are decked out with lanterns for the August moon festival. The stacks of ornate boxes and packages of moon cakes have to be seen to be believed.

Yong reaches into his freezer and pulls out a tin of moon cake ice-creams, a Hong Kong product I've never come across before. Now, he's managed to surprise me and we share another laugh.

Vplus Supermarket

Shop 10-14, Campsie Centre, 14-28 Amy Street, Campsie, 9718 8699

Daily 8.30am-6.30pm (Thu 9pm, Sun 6pm).

Best buys

Pork chop, skin on $6.49/kg

Kikkoman soy sauce $6.99/1.6L

Spring Home glutinous rice balls $2.25/200g

© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald

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