A Visit to the Supermercado

Cafe Society
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A little mundane/pointless but it is about food so here goes.

Whenever I travel internationally, one of my favorite things is to visit local grocery stores. There’s something about the otherness and yet sameness of the international food shopping experience that I geek on. The language barrier gets in the way from time to time, but if you’re friendly and polite, other shoppers usually help you out.

Likewise, I also enjoy visits to ethnic groceries within the US, be they large or small. I don’t mind being the “strange white girl” from time to time. You always find cool things to eat, plus the prices are usually very good, since the clientele consider the items staples rather than exotica. Back in Ann Arbor, I had my choice of Indian, pan-Asian and Middle-eastern/Hallal groceries to explore when the mood struck. But, since moving to the Sticks, I’ve been a little low on ethnic shopping.

But the other day I was driving in the otherwise odious wasteland of Mannassas, VA, when I saw a huge hispanic supermarket. Of course I had to pull in and wander around. What fun! It was a really nice store.

Things I bought:
a hass avocado
a mango
a package of celery
a 3 lb bag of yellow onions
a small butternut squash
2 ruby red grapefruits
6 lbs chicken leg quarters (.79/lb!)
a small package beef bouillion cubes
a kilo of flour tortillas (made in the store, they were still warm… 99cents!)
2 cans of young coconut juice (Thai, actually, but apparently a popular item?)
a large beef, bean, and green chile burrito
a package of chocolate-hazelnut wafers
a package of coconut flavored cookies
a dessert paste made from sweet potatos and chocolate (I didn’t even know this stuff came in flavors other than guava!)

Total grocery bill $18. I mean, how can you beat that? Plus I got an hour of wandering up and down aisles looking at cool stuff that other people eat, and checking out the cool stuff that I could buy, if I had an infinite grocery budget and hundreds of people to feed. Prepared mole sauce. Anchovies in tomato sauce. Pistachio-flavored gelatin (prepare with milk!). Habanero corn tortillas. Whole mackerel. Pork chorizo. Tamarind pods. Fresh cheese “Columbian style.”

If only it wasn’t an hour’s drive away! sniff

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I LOVE doing exactly what you do. In Orlando, we’re lucky to have one of the largest Vietnamese populations in the U.S., so we have a few blocks called “Little Saigon” with nothing but Vietnamese-owned restaurants, markets, shops, and businesses. They have the best French bakery that specializes in Vietnamese sub sandwiches (bahn mi) that I love, a place called Lollicup (actually a national chain) that features boba tea, slushes, and juices in exotic flavors, and my favorite, a pan-Asian supermarket the size of a regular supermarket, with food and sundries from all over Asia. I love that place so much – it’s often like grocery shopping on Mars, with so many alien products and smells, and labels in other languages. I really wish I could go in there with a guide, but in the end, I like to go when I’m hungry and come home with weird new foods. Right now in my pantry, I have little cans of octopus and squid, a few exotic-looking ramen noodle packets, a bottle of Thai iced tea (a favorite of mine), and a big package of durian creme-filled wafer cookies.

In Longwood, north of Orlando, there are several Indian restaurants and markets right within a few blocks of each other, and those are also fun places to browse. Last time I went to one of those, I came home with a chicken tikka masala seasoning packet (which I look forward to preparing), a box of tomato basil-flavored couscous, and a frozen package of PILLSBURY paneer naan, crispy flatbread stuffed with seasoned cottage cheese. They are actually made by Pillsbury of India, and the package featured our own familiar Pillsbury Doughboy, his little chef’s hat replaced by a turban. It was so cute and looked so delicious, I had to try it.

Florida has a very large Hispanic population, especially where I’m from (Miami), so I’m used to Hispanic grocery stores. Still, you can’t beat it. Fresh tortillas, chorizo sausage, varieties of peppers (fresh, dried, and canned) and salsas, neat herbs, interesting snacks (sweet plantain chips, yum!), drinks (Mexican horchata is awesome), and usually they have cafeterias where you can get fresh-made empanadas (meat-filled pastries), croquetas (breaded tubes of chopped seasoned ham), prepared sandwiches, guarapo (fresh-squeezed sugar cane juice), or coladas (little shots of high-octane Cuban coffee). I love all of it, and I’m grateful to have access to such multicultural food and shopping experiences.

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A kindred spirit :smiley:

I love your Pillsbury naan story. Sounds yummy too!

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There’s an ethnic supermarket near me that caters to several hispanic and asian tastes. I go there regularly for things I can’t get at mainstream supermarkets. Just today, I purchased some jicama, fresh cilantro, flank steak, etc., for about $20.00. Everything was much fresher and cheaper than I can get elsewhere. That’s one reason I think we need much more integration.

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I love you guys! I do this too. In Tuscany we shopped at this huge supermarket that sold slices of warm porchetta (whole boneless pig stuffed with sausage), chickens with their heads and feet on, and wild boar. Luckily we were renting a house so we bought stuff to cook. Boar braised in Barolo is really tasy! We also bought a gallon bottle of just pressed olive oil that we put into smaller jars and gave away as Xmas presents.

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I think our immigration quotas should be based on the quality of the countries cuisine: more Italians and less Brits.

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Please no. There are enough Italian markets around here to make me ill - I like Italian food, but this area had a large Italian immigrant population. Of course, I’ve never eaten British food.

I’d be happy with a good Mexican or Asian market close (as in, not Cleveland or Pittsburgh), but I doubt there will be one anytime soon.

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Here in Chicago, we have a bit of just about everything. Mitsuwa is a massive Japanese grocery that folks organize bus trips to from all across the midwest. Honestly, many of the products there are not readily identifiable by these Western eyes.

Our large Mexican population offers a wide variety of mercados.
Lottsa Italian groceries tucked into corners around the city and suburbs.
I’ve heard that Chicago has the largest population of Polish nationals outside of Warsaw. We certainly have the delis and small stores to show for it.
I hear They’re opening a Hanahreum market HMart in Niles, IL very near my home. It’s apparently a giant Asian grocery with Korean emphasis. I look forward to visiting.

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I love trying new cuisines. When I was in Korea I became enamored of Korean food, but there are no Asian groceries locally. I do have two Korean cookbooks, so I need to at least attempt a few more of the items in them.

One time, just once, I sample Ethiopian food at the opening of a museum exhibit. God was that stuff good, the seasonings(I have no idea of their names) were colorful and tasty. Wish I knew where to get some more, but there seems to be a dearth of Ethoipian books and/or recipes around.

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Sorry, I meant to say immigration. Maybe it would be nice to have different cultures integrate their cooking, such as Chinese-Mexican-Swedish fusion cuisine? :slight_smile:

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I do a lot of my grocery shopping at fruterías. The one across the street from my work was selling 20 limes for a dollar awhile back. They’ve rasied the price recently, though, now it’s 10 limes for a dollar. And for real, I’ll never buy an avocado at Jewel again, not when you can get 2/$1 at the frutería. There’re also large Eastern European and Greek communities in the area, so they also have a wide variety of intriguing snacks. I had some tasty Serbian cookies awhile back.

I’m always tempted by the nopalitos. I’m not at all sure how to prepare them, but it just seems like something I need.

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here in nashville we have the k&S world market… always an interesting trip… specializing in thai, indo-pak, oriental, and mexican foods, fresh vegetables and fresh (sometimes live) fish. i’ve foun some interesting items like dried squid jerky and anpan rolls to sugarcane juice which tasted alot worse then one would think.

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Was it fresh-squeezed, or from a can? Fresh sugar cane juice makes the best mojitos with dark rum (I like Gosling Black Seal), crushed limes and fresh mint, and plenty of crushed ice.

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That wouldn’t happen to be the Rogers Park Fruit Market, would it? Love that place. When I was a kid, living in the south suburbs, my grandfather would tell me stories about working in a fruit market when he was in high school during the depression. 20 years later, I moved to Evanston and went shopping at the Rogers Park Fruit Market, only to realize that was the store my grandfather was talking about! Weird!

I really must learn what all those tubers are for. They have pieces of real yams bigger than my head! I can’t imagine how big the whole thing was.

I’ve more recently become enamored of The Marketplace on Oakton. They have a great produce section, of course, but also rows of ethnic foods, including the biggest European jam selection I’ve ever seen.

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canned. and bitter, stunk up my car, and left an aftertaste that lasted for a week… even with constant brushing…

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The produce section there is wonderful. I’m always tempted to buy banana flowers. There was a Marketplace a few blocks from me. I was very disappointed when it closed.

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I am officially hooked on coconut water – the juice of a young cocnut with bits of pulp. I had to go pick up more cans… pretty soon I’ll be buying it by the case!

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jnglmassiv I was going to mention Mitsuwa!

I work right across the street and as my wife is Ja[panese I’m probably there twice a week! That place ROCKS! The bento is reasonably prived and quite good and the food court is just heaven!

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Please tell me you work at Guitar Center!

And I work in the area, too. I’m in Elk Grove at roughly Landmeier and Higgins.

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How timely, today was shopping while going to jobsites to do inspections day for me. I was at Mitsuwa around 10. I picked up some made in Japan Kikkoman, a couple packages of Ma Po tofu mix, and some furikake. I also stopped by Thai Grocery and picked up some fresh Thai basil, mint, cilantro, dried mushrooms, bean sprouts, nam tok mix, and a little package of grilled beef with sticky rice for lunch. While down near the Loop I stopped at Bari foods for some of their in house made marinated eggplant and a loaf of D’amato’s bread. All of that was less than 30 bucks.

Thanks to Kyla’s post tomorrow I’m probably going to stop by Supermercado Morelia for some avocados ( and some shrimp ceviche. At $5.99/lb. it’s easily my favorite cheap yet utterly delicious splurge. A couple spoons of that on top of a tostado, a few slices of avocado and a splash of hot sauce and lime and you’ve got a meal that Rick Bayless would charge 20 bucks for!

This is one of the top things I love about Chicago, I can find ANYTHING I want, usually at a great price and super fresh. I’d say I do about 80% of my shopping at smaller stores. I actively like going to three or four different places to get my food. The loss of convenience is more than made up for in my book by the quality.