Best Asian Supermarket

To shop at 99 Ranch is to realize America is indeed the world's great melting pot. The place looks like a Safeway, but in addition to mundane necessities such as coffee, milk, and sugar, 99 Ranch carries salted duck eggs, ong choy, Chinese rice wines, fresh noodles, sashimi-quality fish, and house-baked, dim sum-style pastries. The Daly City branch is one of many locations (others include Fremont, Richmond, Milpitas, and more than a dozen sites in Southern California). Here, the sprawling seafood counter alone is worth going for. Purchase a whole fish and have it cleaned (and, if you like, deep-fried), or take home your very own live Maine lobster. We named ours Felix, and boy was he tasty.