Ethnic Shops

I headed out on a mission with The Blog Tech yesterday to go to some ethnic food shops. I really wanted to go to a Russian store but was running out of time and it was too far away. Maybe next week! But I did stop at a wonderful Polish shop first. I bought a pound of this Krakowska podsuszana. Think Polish Canadian bacon. Sorry to my Turkish friends but this was a pork outing.

I love to cook with dried mushrooms and this store had bags of all kinds of different ones. The Polish sure like mushrooms. I remember my father telling me how he would get up before sunrise to go to the forest and pick mushrooms with his father.


This is another item that Eastern Europeans eat a lot of. Spreadable cheeses. In the Czech Republic, everyone we visited served slices of baguette spread with cheese and topped with a slice of sausage. This tub is seasoned with chives and cucumber. I like to eat it spread on rye and topped with radish slices.


And though this might not look too appealing, it is wonderful. The lighter sausage is Polish wedding sausage and the dark one is Forest Smoked Kielbasa. Both are mild, smokey and delicious. The difference in color is due to the type of wood used in the smoking process.

I have never made Polish bigos. Bigos is hunter's stew. They were selling it frozen so I thought I would try some. Haven't gotten around to it yet but I am looking forward to it.


I had to get some mustard for the sausages.


And some super pikantny ketchup. Check out how the tomatoes have flames coming out of them.



Polish markets are good places to pick up caviar. I see scrambled eggs with truffle oil and black caviar on my menu.


I can't wait to try this butter too. i will cook the scrambled eggs in it.



They also were selling freshly made mushroom soup. It sure was good! Mushroom soup has been a lifelong favorite of mine.

Only in this neck of the woods would you see this and realize instantly that the KM means that this container is full of kraut and mushroom pierogies.


A dozen big fat pierogies for 9.00. Easter time is pierogie time. The Blog Tech and I will be making our own soon.


You just pop them in a skillet over medium heat and cover for 10 minutes and they are ready to eat.


Then we headed to a huge Asian market. They had these wonderful coffee flavored spongecake rolls.


I bought rice cakes for a recipe I will be trying soon.


Asian stores carry a great selection of candies. I bought these boxes of chocolate covered macadamia nuts.


Daikon to slice paper thin and pile on buttered rye bread with cracked sea salt. I can't wait to plant my French breakfast radishes to eat this way too. Fresh ginger which I can never seem to have enough of and green onions which cost 39 cents a bunch which would cost three times more in my regular grocery store.


Asian stores also have a great selection of seeds this time of year. And they carry some good varieties you can't get anywhere else.


And they usually have the translation on the back. It was a good shopping trip.

Comments

TARYTERRE said…
I am so hungry right now after looking at all the goodies you found. But I am extremely jealous. There are no stores like that here. The local police kept harassing the Asian one we had. I used to get live crabs and fermented black beans there. Then one day they were closed forced out of business by the locals. Backwards thinking by the majority. Such a shame. I have to drive 90 miles or more to find another. SO SAD. Take care.
Anonymous said…
I wish my shopping bags were filled with these goodies, wow, what a haul.You have so much fun with food, and the stores you have at you disposal, are they close i wonder.I have never even thought of a Russian store, are there that many Russian people in your area.It all looks wonderful but i'm still thinking of the perogies, they look so good, we usually make ours in the fall, when we harvest the potatoes.Yum! Great post!
brokenteepee said…
More than anything I miss access to shops like the ones you visited. There is NOTHING like them out here. I have been hankering for some pierogies so I will be making some soon myself. I adore saurkraut ones and I love potato and cheese. Maybe next weekend...hmmmm.
Anonymous said…
I wish we had more of those stores around here, but I'm not sure they even have a polish one in Stockholm :-)

Spreadable cheese is very big here too and I often have it at home. Swedish sausages are crap to be honest :-) So I do try to find European varieties as soon as I go to a store. But I think the ones we usually find here comes from the Balkans.

Extra butter? What's extra with them? Sounds intriguing :-)

I must look for those macadamian nuts next time I go to an Asian store :-)

Have a great day!
Christer.
TheBlakkDuchess said…
I love the couple tiny ethnic stores we have here in town. I only wish we had more of them!

XOXO
I love everything you purchased. I'm so jealous of all the fabulous stores you have close. Can't wait for your perogies. Getting ready to make your Vietnamese Rice Bowl!
Guillaume said…
There are many Polish food shops in the UK. But I never been into one, it is really for the Polish diaspora.
Oh, those sauerkraut and mushroom perogies look GOOD! Ethnic food is the best.
Marigold said…
Like Beverly, I'm jealous of the wonderful shops you have close. We had the in CA, but not here.:( Part of the price you pay for living in a small town I guess. Hope you like the Bigos. It is wonderful!
Anonymous said…
Thanks for the tip about the seeds at the Asian market. I'm going to go check out my local one and see what they have. I can almost taste the greens!
Ina in Alaska said…
So many tasty treasures. Thanks for the "show and tell"!
Sparkless said…
No one in Canada that I know calls rounds of ham bacon. It's an advertising ploy. Bacon is the long slices that everyone knows. Ham is sometimes round slices.
Chris said…
Wonderful post!
I love everything you found. We are having keilbasa tonight with fresh horseradish...yum
Birgit said…
I had no idea that fresh cream cheese isn't common in the USA. Mind you -- I never looked for that kind of cheese in any American food market! It's very common in Germany. I usually have one kind or another at home. :)