When Paul and Wendy Chang started teaching Chinese cooking classes in Champaign more than two decades ago, students would ask where they could purchase the ingredients to make it for themselves at home.

“Attendees would ask us questions about cooking Chinese dishes since no one else in town knew how,” Paul said. “We would teach them how to cook the dishes, but there wasn’t any place to buy the ingredients.”

Fast forward 26 years. While the Changs no longer offer the cooking classes, they still give customers that come to their grocery store pointers on how to make Chinese dishes.

Since opening their Asian grocery store, Chang’s Oriental Mart, in 1984, the husband and wife duo have been selling Asian produce and products that are usually not available in large chain supermarkets such as Walmart and Schnucks.

Selling vegetables and fresh produces such as bok choy (Chinese cabbage), napa cabbage, gai lan (Chinese broccoli or Chinese kale), plantains, Ghana yam, purple yams and ong choy/kangkung (water spinach), customers that shop at the store range from international students longing for some familiar dishes from back home, to Asian food enthusiasts wanting to experiment with cooking their favorite Chinese takeout.

“Customers bring in recipes and ask us why they need the specific vegetables and how to incorporate it into the dish,” Paul said.

With requests ranging from dumplings, to General Tso’s Chicken, to egg rolls, Paul said he and his wife will give customers specific instructions on how to follow through with the recipe.

“We get both people familiar with Asian dishes, and others that don’t even know how to cook rice!” Paul said. “I teach them how to make delicious dishes with just a few simple ingredients — the general assumption by most people is that you need a lot of ingredients to make the dish tasty.”

Having lived in a host of Asian countries including Taiwan, Korea, Hong Kong (China), Vietnam and the Philippines, Paul said he is familiar with what people eat across the continent.

“This is an international town — it’s only logical we provide international products, not only produce available in China,” he said.

The key to their store’s success is only selling the products that are in demand and of high quality.

“We differentiate ourselves from other Asian grocery stores in town by only selling the freshest products,” Paul said. “We never purchase a big bulk of any produce — the goal is to make everything sellable.”

With a number of Asian grocery stores opening across Champaign-Urbana over the years, Paul said competition has increased, but they continue to stay in business by keeping the prices low.

Across town on Fifth and University, the Diep family has owned their Asian grocery store, Far East, since 1987. Like the Changs, the owner Cuong Diep drives to Chicago twice a week to pick-up the international produce grown in California and Florida.

While Chang’s Oriental Market is recognized for its Chinese produce, Far East is known for its Thai, Vietnamese and Chinese products.

Offering similar vegetables and fruits such as bok choy, ong choy/kangkung and green onions, Far East also sells produce found elsewhere in Champaign-Urbana.

Vivia Diep, a student at Centennial High school who helps out at her family’s store, said among the 30 fresh produce items that they sell at the store, the most inquiries they get from shoppers are for durian (a stinky and thorn-covered fruit), yamaimo (Japanese mountain yam) and seven types of mint — a staple in Vietnamese and Thai recipes.

Like Chang’s Oriental Mart, Vivia said many non-Asians come to the store who are interested in learning how to cook their favorite dishes.

“Our most frequently asked dishes are Pho (Vietnamese noodle soup), Pad Thai, Pad See Ew (stir-fry Thai rice noodles), spring rolls and vegan dishes,” Vivia said.

For Katherine Chi, a graduate student at the University, Far East has become a regular pit stop for grocery shopping since she moved to Champaign three years ago.

Although Chi grew up in the U.S., Chinese stir-fries were a staple in her house due to her family’s Taiwanese origins.

“I rarely had exposure to cuisine from other Asian countries until I moved to college,” Chi said in an e-mail.

Chi said she buys Chinese green vegetables such as bak choy and gai lan on a regular basis, to incorporate into Chinese dishes she ate growing-up.

The variety of Asian produce at Far East, however, led her to start cooking dishes she had previously been unfamiliar with.

“Prior to shopping at Far East, I had never cooked with kaffir lime leaves or lemongrass, but these are standard staples for most Southeast Asian dishes, especially curries,” Chi said. “I have used these ingredients to cook dishes like Thai tom yum soup and Malaysian ayam limau purut (chicken curry with lime leaves).”

Chi said Thai red curry and Vietnamese chicken curry have also become a regular part of her diet since she started familiarizing herself with ingredients such as fresh bamboo and Thai eggplants,

“My cooking repertoire has grown since moving here because I’ve had an opportunity to experiment with some new ingredients I’ve encountered at Far East,” Chi said.

For Chi and the many other students that shop at Far East and the other Asian grocery stores in Champaign and Urbana, it’s more than reviving their favorite childhood dishes when they visit the stores.

“When you browse the aisles, you’re overwhelmed by items that are both familiar and exotic,” Chi said. “There are all kinds of Asian languages being spoken around you. Even if Far East is grungy, the intimacy of the small aisles and the shared food culture really makes me feel like I am part of a community.”