An asterisk (*) at the end of the listing indicates that it's a good place to bring children (my children, anyway, what do I know?)

Bangkok Center Grocery
104 Mosco St, 212-732-8916
One stop shopping for all your Thai grocery needs, including some killer refrigerated curry pastes that'll last you a year and dazzle your friends with your apparent culinary know-how. The friendly owners make for impressive cultural ambassadors, happily steering their farang customers toward the tastiest snacks and the best brand of fish sauce.

Trader Joe's
142 East 14th St 212-529-4612
coming to 130 Court St, Brooklyn
I feel compelled to include old Trader Joe because of the religious fervor which used to surround my wheeled friends' pilgrimages to his outposts in Long Island and Westchester County. I figured the establishment of a T. J.'s beachhead on 14th street would cool their ardor a bit, but nothing doing. Familiarity has only increased their lust for inexpensive peanut-butter, mango salsa, and yogurt & dill flavored papadum chips. I do like those chips, though I remain somewhat torn that the Trader's colonization of Brooklyn has caused out neighborhood bank to flee its stately premises. Not that I won't be joining the rest of the herd in the vault for a complimentary toothpick of the Trader's frozen turkey sausage enchiladas or what have you.

Patel Brothers
42-92 Main Street, Queens, 718-661-1112
I suppose you could spend a few bucks for a dinky bottle of coriander from Met Foods, but why, when, for the same amount, Patel Brothers will sell you enough to fill a toddler's pillow case? I love the way this place smells. I only wish my friends and colleagues shared my enthusiasm for some of the more out-there snacks and sweeties. If the best they can manage is a polite nibble from the economy-sized containers that so appeal to my sense of adventure and community spirit, I'm going to need a bigger sari fast.

The Chelsea Market
75 9th Ave
Well worth a visit, provided your loins are girded for unending field trip groups of New York City schoolchildren and the legions of Food Network network fans praying that their gods will descend from the closed-to-the-public upper reaches.
*

Hanh Ah Reum
25 W. 32nd St, 212-695-3283.
This Korean grocery is a reliable source of two items Milo considers pantry essentials: the dildo-shaped bottles of Angelo Pietro Sesame & Miso Dressing that the relatives in Indiana now clamor for also (ostensibly because they like the taste), and the sesame-oil drenched roasted laver seaweed snack that makes our teeth look we've been feasting on moss.

May Wah Healthy Vegetarian Food
213 Hester St, 212-334-4428
You know that fake meat on the menu in Chinatown's vegetarian restaurants? Where do you think it comes from? A cow? A pig? No, here! Make it your last stop or bring an ice chest, because a lot of the stock's in a freezer case.

Aji Ichiban
37 Mott Street (near Pell Street)212-233-7650
188 Lafayette St (near Broome St) 212-219-4010
23 Broadway (near Catherine St) 212-571-3755
153A Centre St (near Walker St) 212-625-8179
167 Hester St (near Mott St) 212-925-1133
Man, it's gotten so you can't swing a cat in Chinatown without breaking the plate glass window belonging to this Hong Kong based candy store chain. Reiko scoffs that they're doing a lame job of trying to pass themselves off as Japanese, but still, they make for an awfully good browse when you require something more rarified than a fistful of M&Ms to pound down.
*

Jacques Torres
66 Water Street, Brooklyn, 718-875-9772
The aroma of Monsieur T's tiny shop (and the kitchen that feeds it) will make you weak in the knees, assuming your nose works and you've been priming the pump with M&Ms. The Saturday before Easter is a madhouse, but any other time is a good time to sample some exquisite bon-bons from the case, peek in at the white coated workers in their sanitary shower caps (kind of makes you gag thinking about getting an Oompah Loompah hair in your Wonkabar) or sip some hot chocolate that bears a close kinship with chocolate pudding. The chili-spiked hot chocolate mix is pretty dear for 17 bucks, but comes in a red tin that screams "look at the nice present I got you" and is a bit classier than my preferred method of dumping a canned chipotle into the blender with some scalded milk and a tablet of Abuelita.

Kalyustan's
123 Lexington Ave, 212-685-3451
Now that the East Village's India Spice House has closed, I've had to transfer my allegiance to this more reputable supplier for all my bulk cumin, turmeric and breath freshening fennel studded with rodent-dropping-sized candy needs. It's a bit "As Featured in Gourmet Magazine," but the packages aren't gummy like in some other establishments I could name (my own kitchen for instance) and the mango powder is of fairly recent vintage.

Astor Wines
(Address Updated) 399 Lafayette St, 212-674-7500
They've got wine out the bahootie in this well-lit landmark, frequent tastings and a staff that can suggest something drinkable at rot gut prices. Greg and I made Inky's dollhouse out of wooden crates they gave us for free.

Ten Ren Tea and Ginseng Parlor
75 Mott, 212-349-2286
If you've got your pride, pretend you're a connoisseur, with senses keen enough to appreciate something that translates to "Tongue of Small Bird" and goes for a hundred bucks an ounce. The good thing about certain of these Chinatown institutions welcoming busloads of gawking tourists is that you don't have to feel sly about rubbernecking like a real rube. Ten Ren will pour samples for any bumbling Yankee, yes, even George Bush Sr. as evidenced by a yellowing news clipping.

The Hong Kong Supermarket
109 East Broadway, 212-227-3388 (there's one near the subway in Sunset Park, too)
One of many Chinese supermarkets - this one doesn't attract tourist buses and it's an easy walk to the F train's stop at East Broadway.

Sunrise Mart
29 3rd Avenue, 212-598-3040
A Japanese supermarket upstairs from St. Marks Bookstore - Santa swings by the candy aisle for Milo and Inky's Christmas stockings. Allow an extra five minutes to study the bulletin board by the elevator.

Sahadi's
187 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn, 718-624-4550
A venerable Middle Eastern grocery on a street of Middle Eastern groceries. They've got a deli, tons of bulk bins, Greek Easter egg dye, marzipan shaped like hardboiled egg sandwiches, homemade halvah, belly dancing videos and a staggering selection of olives.

Fairway
450-500 Van Brunt St, Brooklyn, 718-694-6868
2127 Broadway, 212-595-1888
2328 12th Avenue 212-234-3883
This is classic NYC food shopping - tight aisles, wonderful things to eat, and customers whose heads are about to explode. Back when I was practicing massage on 72nd and Broadway, I used to eat one of their Spring Joy salads every day! The Brooklyn Fairway's parking lot rocks an unparalleled view of the Statue of Liberty.

Dean and Deluca
560 Broadway, 212-226-6800
I advise you to treat this SoHo institution as a museum of glorious, overpriced fantasy food that you are too intelligent and thrifty to purchase. If you go near closing, you may find an extroverted produce man willing to stage an impromptu auction, with the day's unsold starfruit and white baby eggplants going to the highest bidders.

Russ and Daughters
179 E. Houston, 212-475-4880
My sister-in-law's maternal grandmother is one of the Daughters, which makes us very distant relations of this old school Jewish deli, featuring heaps of caviar, bagels, herring and halvah displayed in an antique setting.

G. Esposito Pork Store
357 Court St, Brooklyn, 718-875-6863
With a name like that and a malevolent looking fiberglass pig dressed in a chef's toque out front, what's there not to love? Put a homemade sopressato in your suitcase as a souvenir of your trip to Brooklyn's Carroll Gardens!