ITHACA Tofu

I personally prefer this place than Win Li that is further south from campus! I live nearby and it’s very convenient for me to get here! The stuff are much cheaper than win Li, and definitely comparable to ranch99 (Asian supermarket in California). They sell mahjong table here!
Clean and organized! Larger selection of items including shabu beef and Bak choy! I love this place

More expensive than big city Korean grocery, but I was able to find everything I wanted here, especially the soondubu (extra soft tofu) which I couldn’t get at Win Li.

I LOVE this store, and the people who run it are kind and helpful. Where else around here can you find Bulgogi (pork or beef) freshly made, ready for stir-​frying? Not to mention a whole lot of interesting foods that I don’t know the name of. Every day there are fresh specialties, ready to eat. Tofu dishes of several sorts, salads (or whatever they call those dishes in Korea), seafoods, fresh FRESH veggies (2 — 3 kinds of bean sprouts, king mushrooms, melons, Oriental greens of all sorts), 2 kinds of luscious freshly-​made kim chee, all kinds of out-​of-​the-​ordinary prepared foods. Plus a vast array of rices, canned goods (like water chestnuts, prepared sauces, cookies, — and the freezer cases full of all kinds of fish and other seafoods, and walls full of pre-​made frozen dumplings and other goodies.
I am not Asian, and am happy not to live in NYC or environs any longer. I would not compare this store to the impersonal and indifferent H-​Mart or Lotte groceries in NYC and Fort Lee. It’s much better! You want cheaper? Drive the 5 ½ hours to NYC! But then you contend with everybody in a hurry, elbowing each other out of the way. These people, this store — this is generous, but human-​sized.

I’m surprised this place is still in business. I used to be a fairly regular customer. Win Li, the superior option, is all the way across town, and I admit it, I’m lazy. Ithaca Tofu is smaller, more expensive, but generally stocks the same Asian foodstuff essentials.
One day, I was inspecting my haul at home and noticed that one of the items was expired, a bag of frozen dumplings. Not «just expired,» but a full year. I checked everything else. A good half of more of the items were expired, some months, some weeks. No mixing up MMDDYY/​DDMMYY here, they were flat out expired. I went back to return everything. The guy behind the counter gave me some flak, but eventually refunded it and said he would clean everything out.
I admit, some of the items I bought are a bit obscure, so maybe they’ve been sitting in the freezer for a while and they forgot about it. It’s not much of an excuse when you’re talking about a grocery store, but I was going to let it slide. Laziness, you know?
About three weeks later, I’m back in the store. I poke around and notice that ALL of the items that I found expired were still in the freezers. Wow. I took my basket full of loot, left it right there on the floor, and walked out.

This is the one of the two small-​sized (compared to Hmart or Lotte chains) Korean groceries in Ithaca (the other one is Green castle). They have most of Korean ingredients, some Japanese and Chinese ingredients. My guess is that they receive their items from the same distributer that provides produce to «Lotte» which is a big Korean grocery chain that I used to go to in MD, USA. (Lotte has a lot of «A-​ssi» brand items, so does Ithaca Tofu).
I am very good at remembering prices and everything is like 50 cents or a buck more expensive than Korean groceries in major cities. However, I think those 50 cents or a buck extra is totally worth it given how difficult to get to major cities from Ithaca.
Tips: If you like fresh seafood, go on Thursdays. In the back of their store (it’s in a storage area, so you have to ask them where it is), they have fresh seafood. I used to go almost every Thursday to get their fresh Mackerel and squid. They tend to be all gone if you go there too late at night.