Sam’s Nutrition Center

Indonesian groceries over here and for Sunday lots of Indoneasian meal to buy like Nasi padang, nasi bungkus and many mooooo

CHECK THE PRICE BEFORE YOU BUY SOMETHING. ESPECIALLY the ones without price tag. I just bought something, they charged me $ 6.25 not include the tax. But, when my friend called them to ask how much and they say only 5.99 not include the tax either.

I came here for some flax seeds. Pretty fast trip in and out. The worker was helpful. She knew exactly where it was. Next time I’m going to buy some quinoa. I didn’t get a chance to roam around but if you need flax seeds… they have it here. I got an organic bag for 10 bucks. Pretty big bag.
–Give it a try!

Aside from Simpang Asia, this is my family’s go-​to place for Indonesian food.
Every Sunday, Sam’s sells a great array of Indonesian baked goods. They’re the kind that I grew up with in Jakarta, so it’s like going back in time. Granted, the variety has narrowed over the years. I attribute that to the bad economy. Or just my poor timing which makes me come after all the good stuff are gone.
Here are some things you should get:
1. Lemper — a rice roll stuffed with shredded chicken
2. Martabak — Indonesian… cake (?) with peanuts, chocolate, and sometimes cheese.
3. Bakso Goreng — giant fried chicken or fish balls. I don’t know what animal they come from, but I know they’re delicious with rice and soy sauce.
4. Lapis Surabaya — super moist Indonesian layer cake; I wish the portions were bigger, but you can put in a special order with the baker for a whole pan of it.
Sam himself is incredibly friendly. He’s always all-​smiles and super soft spoken. His wife, whose hair I absolutely love, is sometimes working the counter with him. They’re both very easy to talk to, and I can see why this place is popular with Indonesians and other Monterey Park residents alike.

This place is kind of weird. It seems like they are selling variety of products. I bought their overpriced pineapple cookies there. The cookies tasted average and the price is expensive.

This is the place where you can find the really off the wall things you never would think to find in the US. If you’re having any craving for Indonesian food, chances are, they’ll have what you’re looking for. Personally I don’t actually know what the dishes are called on top of my head but if I see it I’ll know it. Besides that, you can find pretty much the most popular snacks or candy you can find over in Indo. The best part for me though has to be the fact that this place is 5 minutes from my house.

its good location but too far for me

I went here just now.
I’ll be leaving LA on Tuesday and I came all the way over from my house to buy martabak and they sold out.
The price is expensive too!

This place is awesome, just cause they have pretty much everything that every Chinese Indonesian are so used to. Chinese medicines that were sold in Indo, you can find them here. Indonesian magazines or some bi-​weekly journals. Some Indonesian grocery spices, whatever you want, just name it, you can find it here. That ain’t the best part yet.
Every Sunday, there are these people who caters from home bring their food in small packet, like a lunch box size food packaging for you to buy. They are very generous in portions too, if you’re those girls who ate itsy bitsy size, this can fit you for 2 meals at least. For me, this is just one meal, I ate like a dinosaur portion. They have nasi uduk, nasi kuning, nasi padang, nasi bungkus, nasi rames, any nasi (rice in English) mix of entrees, they have it. They used to be $ 6.50, but I think due the economy crisis and high produce cost, it’s $ 7 or $ 7.50 now, but trust me, this is so like home-​made but very professional and clean, so you really get your money worth. Sometimes they also have lontong cap gomeh (rice cake with sweet curry sauce).
Apart from that, they have snacks too, such es kue bolu, lemper ayam (sticky rice with chicken on the inside), and many more. It’s usually very crowded on Sunday cause people stop by before going to the Indonesian Catholic church nearby. If you come here before 1, it would be better, I believe that’s when the caterers bring their food in and how do I know that? Cause one of them is my so-​called aunt, I was shocked to find out too =), but that doesn’t deter me from buying, her food are awesome.
Parking in here sucks big time cause they shared this lots with tens of stores, here is where patience is needed and if you’re patience, you’ll find a desirable spot nearby. If my craving for Indo food is on the horizon, I’ll steer my wheel to this joint cause I know I don’t have to sit and wait, I can just ask Sam (the owner) to let me see the selections of the day and yes, he knows me too =P

When I found out there’s an Indonesian grocery store close to Gramps’ hood, I immediately made a plan to go there. The place is a decent size. More or less is the size of Simpang asia store. They have the similar type of racks full of indonesian goodies. They have the instant coffee that my little brothers like. The kind that my dad always bring back from Indonesia. The kind that have different flavor (vanilla, cappuccino, etc). They also have all kinds of indonesian medicine such as teh tai yo gin and sangobion. They also have food emulsifier (TBM) to make indonesian cake. Good decent grocery store. I haven’t bought anything there yet, but the price seems typical of the other indonesian stores I’ve seen.

This is an awesome little Indo market. You’ll know it by the «Indonesian groceries» neon sign at the window.
I really like this store — it’s small and cozy. The owners are friendly and chatty, and know their regular customers. The customers are mostly Indo, but you can sometimes hear someone with a Singaporean or Malaysian accent.
The store is mostly stocked with the usual nutrition goods: health supplements, etc. And then the rest of the store is all the local Indo goods!
There’s always a few Indo magazines by the checkout counter. Also, this is where you have come to buy your Indomie — much cheaper than the regular supermarkets and non-​Indo stores. The very back of the store has a rack of krupuk and emping.
There’s also various Indo seasonings in little boxes, or foil packets. For bakers, there’s the Koepoe-​Koepoe food colors and flavors. They also carry the oh-​so-​hard-​to-​find ovalett /​ovalette! Also tiny containers of sugared tamarinds and other little snacks. I’m sad that there’s no Choki-​Choki, though. Also, this is the cheapest place to get Indomie: three for $ 1. Or you can buy them by the box, if you’re so inclined. =) Indomie at Shun Fat, 99 Ranch, and Hong Kong Supermarket costs between 40 to 65 cents each!
There’s a fridge at the back of the store filled with all sorts of ready-​made Indo meals and snacks. I’ve seen the meals on Sundays and Mondays, but I’m not sure about other days. They usually have other freshly-​made snacks behind the counter — the owner told me that someone brings them in every day. On the day I came in and asked, they had murtabak manis (aka ban jian kueh).
These ready-​made meals and snacks are a little pricey by Monterey Park standards, though. Normal prices for everywhere else, though! The meals are $ 7.50, a tray of five kueh dadar for $ 3.50, the martabak manis was $ 12 for a container. But hey, I need my Indo fix. And so do you!

Didn’t even know that on Sundays this place sells Indonesian food brought in by various vendors. You can buy nasi campur, nasi kuning, nasi bungkus, nasi padang, nasi warteg as well as delicious empek empek, otak otak, kueh khu, lemper, and more. I bought some of each but shared the nasi padang with my girlfriend. It consisted of some collard greens in a lodeh kind of sauce, chicken drumstick with curried flavor. There is some deng deng belado (beef jerky) and one of those yummy blistered eggs. We also had the empek empek which is a huge fish cake with an egg stuffed inside. It comes with this garlicky tart sauce. Everything was so yummy! I bought a bunch more to bring home to hubby.
Try to get there after 10am as all the ladies who make the food would’ve brought their wares to Sam’s and you will be a better selection to choose from. All the nasi (rice plates) are $ 7.50 and the other stuff are priced accordingly. Don’t go too late otherwise everything will be picked clean!
PS: The sambal cabe hijau is also excellent. I bought one tub but will be going back to pick up 2 more in a few minutes to bring home.