Chinese Herb Stores in Brooklyn and Manhattan

In the Chinatowns of New York you can find quite a few Chinese herbal medicine stores, or stores that carry them.

I began my search in South Brooklyn in Bay Ridge on eighth avenue. The first place I visited was the Golden Harvest Trading store. The clerk there was very helpful in answering a few of my questions. The most popular herbs sold there are wolfberry and ginseng, which sells like hotcakes as it is used in the preparation of all kinds of Chinese dishes. In the back of the store, there is a doctors quarters, and the clerk informed me that the practitioner was his mother. As you can see in the picture below, their prescription stock was composed of a wall of bins each containing a separate dried herb. Although most of the clients are Chinese, non-Chinese peoples frequent the store now and then. 

Ginseng by the pound

Golden Harvest Unpackaged Herbs

Store Nearby Golden Harvest

The Hong Kong Supermarket is located on 6013 eighth avenue in Brooklyn, right down the street from the Golden Harvest Trading Company. It is an immense store filled with all kinds of food. They had an herbal medicines counter which is pictured below. I attempted to talk to the man behind the counter, however, he did not speak English, and the place was extremely busy.

The following pictures are from Chinese herb stores in Manhattan in the Lower East Side Chinatown. Grace Ho from the Kam Tat trading company has been a Chinese herbal doctor for many years and has appeared in a CNN news show which covered Chinese herbal medicine. She was an absolute pleasure to speak to which was a relief becasue many of the clerk or owners I attempted to speak to were not interested in talking to me or only spoke Chinese. She explained to me that she has many non-Chinese customers, who are interested in purchasing remedies to their ailments that are mild in nature and that produce no side effects. She believes western medicine is good, but extremely different in its approach to the body. Chinese medicine looks at the body as an ecosystem of checks and balances. Anyone may make an appointment with her to be examined. She explained that the herbs here do not cost much more than they do in China. 

Grace Ho in her Store: Kam Tat Trading

Health Town Inc., 59 Mott St., Manhattan

Kam Man Food Inc., 200 Canal St., Manhattan

Shark Fins and other medicines, Kam Man Food Inc.

Chinese herb stores are a lot of fun to go looking around in. If there is an ailment you are suffering from, look at my herbs section for a possible remedy.  The herbs vary in prices depending on how rare they are. Enjoy!