JAPANESE GROCERIES A SPECIALTY AT FORT LEE FOOD EMPORIUM

RICHARD TURCSIK

FORT LEE, N.J. -- The Food Emporium's new store here is targeting this community's burgeoning Asian population with an extensive assortment of Japanese groceries.

Lining one side of an aisle, the section contains 24 feet of dry grocery and a 4-foot cooler of Japanese specialty products.

The department -- which is located in the same aisle as soup, salad dressing, pickles and condiments -- begins with large bags of Japanese rice placed below several varieties of rice cookers. It also offers a wide assortment of spices, sauces, instant food, green teas, flavored teas, sushi wrappers, pasta and ready-to-drink coffee, which retailed at 99 cents for a 6-ounce can during SN's visit. Four different brands of soy sauce packaged in 1-liter bottles, ranging from $2.99 to $4.99, are also available.

The section contains a variety of Oriental salty snack foods, including such local favorites as Wasabi flavored fried green peas at $1.49 a bag, mixed bean crackers and rice crackers with seaweed bits. The labels on many of the items are written in Japanese.

Next to the salty snacks are several popular imported Oriental candy items, including gum, hard candies and bags of gummy candies in pineapple, grape, orange and muscat grape flavors for $3.09 each.

The Oriental foods are set off from the rest of the store's more standard international food offerings by a 4-foot, upright, open cooler. The cooler contains pastries, soup mixes, soy bean paste, seasoned mushrooms at $4.49 a jar and prepared cod fish at $2.99 a 6-inch plastic container. Japanese delicacies -- such as a 4-inch-long yellow pickled radish for $3.59, and boiled lotus root at $3.69 for three pieces -- line the bottom shelf of the cooler.

The Bronx, N.Y.-based Food Emporium, a division of A&P, Montvale, N.J., opened the 58,000-square-foot store in late April. The unit replaced an A&P that was on the site.

Michael Rourke, senior vice president of communications and corporate affairs at A&P, told SN that while other Food Emporium units stock Japanese foods, the Fort Lee store has the largest selection because of the area's large Japanese and Korean populations, and because it is the largest Food Emporium in the chain.

"There are many Japanese people in that area and we are working hard to serve them," Rourke said.