The Orientex Supermarket at 144 High Street enjoys some fame among the Filipino diaspora for its extensive stock of goodies from the Philippines, not least due to its showcasing on You-Tube and at other places on the internet.

The supermarket is a major outlet for Milagrosa Food and Grains, a related wholesale importer, also based locally. They supply Milagrosa brand rice. There are about 80 different varieties grown in the Philippines, but Orientex tend to stock one main higher grade variety in bulk bags or, more cheaply, as broken rice (5kg, 10kg or 25kg) and also Thai Jasmine rice, and white and black glutinous varieties. They currently (March 2008) have a buy two get one free offer on 2kg bags of broken rice, which sell at £1.60 each. This works out at 6kg for £3.20, or approximately 53.3p per kilo. The instant and dried noodle selection is good, but not cheap compared to ASDA or Chinatown.

The shop also stocks imported prepared or processed meat, including, on occasions, Longanisa Pampanga, (which are a surprisingly sweet sausage from the Pampanga region of the central plains of Luzon) which complement any feast of Filipino dishes. The frozen fish, poultry, game, seafood and shell fish are suitable for Filipino cooking and also as ingredients for use in Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese and Indonesian cuisine: They come frozen, canned, bottled, dried, and preserved. They do not stock fresh fish.

Orientex stocks frozen and pickled fruits and vegetables, like pickled mangos and preserved bamboo shoots; as well as fresh in the cabinets to the left of the entrance – herbs and vegetables like lemongrass, galangal, pakchoi, and baby aubergines, alongside the fresh and deep-fried tofu. I do take issue with the presentation of the vegetables: the fresh lemongrass and many of the vegetables should be available loose, by weight, rather than in inappropriately sized bundles or wrapped in plastic. They are in any event mainly over-priced compared to supermarkets in Chinatown.

The shelves groan with all manner fruit purees, extracts, concentrates, preparations and sauces, shrimp pastes, fish sauces, soy, chilli sauces, (including bottled piquant chili and Thai Holy Basil suitable for making one of my favourites, Chicken Krapow), curry pastes and marinades. The shop has plenty of spreads, and dips for food from all over South-East Asia, bouillons, cubes for forming the base for soups like the exquisite tamarind based sinigang, a sarap Filipino speciality which the world should know more of, and broth and sauce pastes. There are also prepared and processed nuts and nut products; tofu and soyabean products, coconut and desiccated coconut; coconut cream and milk powder.

They have gelatine and agar in stock for food preparation, though much of this ends up in sticky concoctions which are not really worth the trouble, truth to tell. They also sell many jams, marmalades, jellies and desserts, which are frankly inferior to their English counterparts, but no doubt are redolent of home for some of the 150,000 expat Pinoys who live in the UK. I should say that not having many particularly interesting desserts is something that the Philippines and many countries in South-East and East Asia have in common. If at all in doubt, my advice unless you have a good supply of mangos, which in Walthamstow we do, and you know how to do sticky rice in coconut milk properly, is stick to fresh fruit to round off a South-East Asian meal. I include Halo Halo as one to generally avoid.

The collection under one roof in this shop is impressive, though a word to the wise: many non-Filipino items, especially the fresh ones, are cheaper in Chinatown or locally, if you are prepared to really look. The offer of 3 for 2 cans of coconut milk can be beaten on price elsewhere in the neighbourhood, especially when you bear in mind that many local shops will allow good natured haggling and give fair discounts for a box or two of such tinned items. Staff at Orientex itself used to do this when they were smaller and starting out at the bottom of the High Street, but they are no longer so willing to do this of late. Orientex is, to me, the Asian version of the Turkish Shop on our High Street. Some of the delights of this store are available put together by experts at Tropical Taste.