Sunday, February 28, 2021

Grocery Shopping, But Make It ADVENTURE

John thought of a way to get us out of the house that didn't involve crowds of people OR being outside, so we made a whole afternoon of it:


WE HAVE FUN HERE

The International Food Club is one of those hidden gems you treasure; it's always empty in the late afternoons when we visit, the prices are reasonable, and it has foods, snacks, and drinks from all over the world. It's like a theme park for your mouth, y'all.

 

Also the front door is made of heavy plastic flaps you have to push through like you're in an action movie chasing after the baddies in an abandoned warehouse. BONUS.
 

 I mentioned our grocery haul in my Stories a while back, but now I'm back with REVIEWS. Awww yeeeeeah. Buckle up, gourmands. We may not be able to travel, but at least our taste buds can.

Starting off with my most fascinating find:



Doganay is apparently a popular drink in Turkey. I had one or two people on IG tell me they drank it daily when they lived or visited there.

I expected this to be carbonated, mildly sweet, and sort of kombucha-like.

This... was none of those things.

Instead it was like being punched in the palate with something intensely salty and savory, followed by an aftertaste of carrot, minus any sweetness. Also no carbonation. I actually double-checked the label to make sure I wasn't drinking a cooking sauce, because the intensity felt up there with soy or Worcestershire. Not unpleasant, though, just strong. I had 2 or 3 sips, then decided it was interesting, but not quite for me.

John said it tasted like straight vinegar - and to be fair, I'm not sure what straight vinegar tastes like, so he could be right. If you're curious and don't have an international grocer near you, you can buy a 6-pack of doganay on Amazon for $18. (I paid $3 for the bottle, so that's not a bad price.)

Let's skip ahead to my favorite find:



This is also a product of Turkey, and less of a "jam" and more "giant fruit chunks in syrup." So I was dubious.  BUT THEN I TRIED A CHUNK.  Sweet Stay Puft, y'all. This is the best thing I've tasted in years... or maybe ever.

Someone told me quince tastes like "honey and pink sunshine," and that's pretty bang on. It's a crisp hard texture (like an unripe pear) and brighter and lighter than honey, though; so deliciously different from any fruit I've tasted.

I realize I'm geeking out over a fruit jam, but how cool is it that I'm 42 and just now discovering an amazing new-to-me flavor? This is why I like trying new things!

 I got a few dozen messages encouraging me to eat the quince jam with sharp cheese, and ohhhh were they right. Then after a little experimenting I discovered it's amazing on peanut butter toast. Not toast by itself, though; the salty peanut butter makes all the difference, trust me. Nomz.

Keep an eye out for quince jam in your local grocery stores, since it sounds like it's somewhat common here in the States. Oh, and if you get a jar like ours with the giant hard chunks, just pop it into the food processor to make it more jam-like.



This one triggered some nostalgia with my UK readers:



I got several DMs from folks saying they grew up eating these candies and loved them, while another tried to warn me off with green-faced emojjis, writing, "they taste like old ladies!!" I'm not a fan of floral flavors (filth flarn and flibber), so I'd probably agree with the old lady taster - which is why I didn't buy these for me, but for my friend Arielle.

 Arielle immediately tried them, and shared one with John. They reported that the violet flavor is "NOT 'delicate'", but sweet and reminiscent of Smarties - meaning the chalky candy Smarties we have here in the U.S., not the chocolate ones y'all get in Canada and the UK.

Speaking of chocolate, a few people told me they also grew up eating violet cream-filled dark chocolates in the UK, which sounds amazing. I think that would get me to try florals again!

Anyhoo, Parma Violets are another treat you can buy on Amazon; a pack of 5 is just under $10.

Hmmm. I thought I could jam (heh) all my international food finds into one post, but I can already see I'm too chatty for that. Let me do just one more, then come back for part 2:



Freekeh is roasted wheat, and according to Wiki it's popular in the eastern Mediterranean Basin. (That includes countries from Egypt to Greece to Spain.)

If you're thinking that roasted wheat sounds like it has a lot of gluten in it, you would be right. Fortunately I can eat gluten, though, and John and I are always looking for new side dishes.

John watched a few tutorials on Youtube to learn how to prepare the Freekeh, which takes a little while. You have to rinse it, then cook in chicken stock for a good 30-45 minutes. While it's cooking, the Freekeh smells a LOT like beans. Which was... unexpected. It also has a greenish hue, so the overall first impression on the plate wasn't fantastic, ha.


John decided to go all out on trying new things with this meal: in addition to the freekeh he made lemon cinnamon chicken (you heard me) and a side salad of cucumber, feta, tomatoes, and fresh mint.

This was the strangest combinations of flavors I've ever had on a plate... and I freekeh-ing loved it.

So the freekeh is mildly savory carbohydrate with an aftertaste of - I swear I'm not making this up - canned French green beans. I should mention I like canned French green beans, so that's not a bad thing in my book. It has a great texture, firmer than couscous, and overall I'd take this over couscous any day.

From the recipes John found online it looks like people usually cook the freekeh with onion, and since I can't have onion, we got a milder - and possibly blander - effect. I still really liked it, though, and I bet it tastes even better prepared the traditional way.

I have to mention that funky cinnamon lemon chicken now, because even after going back for seconds, I still can't wrap my brain around how those flavors worked together that well. The sauce was a little creamy, but not sweet, and every bite continued to surprise me, but in a good way? Anyhoo, here's the recipe, since I know some of you will want to try. (John used cream instead of yogurt to make it Low FODMAP for me, and then he used it as a sauce instead of a marinade.) Oh, and the mint in the cucumber tomato salad was like little fresh starbursts in my mouth, A++, highly recommend.

If you've enjoyed my ramblings over new-to-me foods and treats, then check back for Part 2 where I discuss ice cream spoon pasta, my favorite international cookies, being traumatized by a sweet roll variety pack, and of course, grape molasses

*****

P.S. Today's the last day to enter this month's Squeegineer Give-Away, so go, go, go! Every month I add a few more options to the prize board, and there's a little of everything, from jewelry to art to little nerdy treasures I find in my office closet. A few weeks ago I even unearthed my steampunk Easter eggs in their top hat display from 2015! (pic below) I'm hoping one of you winners will pick those this round in time for Easter. :)


29 comments:

  1. Can you have oranges? If you can, in winter I make a salad with 4-5 kinds of oranges peeled and sliced, sprinkled with sugar and fresh mint. Variations include honey for the sugar, adding dates, squeezing on a bit of lime, a teaspoon of rose water, or using vanilla sugar. Mint plus orange is shockingly good.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oohh, yes, I *can* have oranges, and now I must try this!

      Delete
    2. Reminds me of sticking a peppermint stick in an orange as a kid! Orange and mint are so great together.

      Delete
  2. Why did I not know about this store when we were in FL?! We would have gone in a heartbeat! Now that we are in the north GA mountains, we have a store called Buford Highway Farmers Market that is just outside of Atlanta that has become our go-to for our favorite Japanese foods and fresh produce. They have aisles of things from all over the world in addition to a wonderful seafood dept and seafood dept. They've got a huge Spanish and American bakery. It's about a 1.5 hour drive one way for us, so we stock up when we go. If you are ever in the area, I highly recommend it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That should have read seafood and MEAT dept. That's what I get for typing when I've got indigestion!

      Delete
  3. I love these kind of posts. Gives me ideas on new things to try. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Glad this made it from Story to blog! Grocery stores now can count as adventures, and this one looks more exciting than average. Thanks for describing all the flavors you found. I am a little jealous, since I have not set foot in an actual grocery store since October, let alone an international market. Looking forward to Par 2.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Going to the grocery store is a must do activity when I’m in a foreign country— sometimes because we’re there for a while and need to buy groceries but even if we’re eating at restaurants we will try to find a grocery store (not always easy in tourist districts) and buy some interesting odd things to try.

    ReplyDelete
  6. If you can find quince fruit, it makes an amazing pie filling. Like an apple pie, but better.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh my goodness, this is going on my "To Eat" list immediately.

      Delete
    2. Cumin, cinnamon, and garlic are a holy trio in middle-eastern cookery -- add some dried apricots (or fresh quince) and a protein like lamb or chicken, bake covered for an hour or so and your tongue will be in heaven. Also, I make pies with two parts apple to one part quince, and they are delicious -- the quince adds a tart but floral flavor. If you get fresh quince, use a cleaver to whack them into quarters without peeling them -- they are that hard! -- just barely cover them with water in a baking dish and bake them in the oven on low for about a half hour -- this will soften them enough to peel and core. Toss the scraps in a crockpot with a little water and cook covered overnight; press that through a strainer to make quince paste, which you can mix with your pie apples or sweeten and put on toast. And that's just a start!

      Delete
  7. Since I'm trying your lemon-cinnamon-chicken, I should share my favorite lemon-cinnamon-chicken recipe in return. It's 1/4 cup olive oil, 1/4 cup lemon juice and then 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp oregano, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, and 1/4 tsp pepper. mix and pour over chicken in a shallow roasting pan, than bake at 425 for 30 minutes. It's delicious and I always end up eating a ton of rice to soak up the sauce. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. oooh, I must try this. Thanks.

      Delete
    2. Rachel, are you using boneless chicken breasts? Do you marinade the chicken in the sauce first?

      Delete
  8. Mint goes surprisingly well with a lot of things one wouldn't think it would. So any time you have some kicking around, might as well try it with whatever else you're having!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cinnamon also goes well with a lot of things you wouldn't think, as we're used to it being used only in sweets here in the US.

      Delete
  9. I love that store! I found a new-to-me Korean grocery store recently on John Young & 50, and I’ve really been enjoying it. I love to cook Asian food so I’m there and at 1st Oriental supermarket all the time. Is it weird that I’d love to meet up with you someday for a grocery store meander?

    ReplyDelete
  10. Going to try the chicken dish. Growing up, Mom joined an organic food co-op to try new foods in bulk. The havalah was great, the odd jars of "ain't eating THAT' were not. And I'd love the FOE robot! To go with the one I cross stitched.

    ReplyDelete
  11. My father used to make quince "jam," but I was never a fan. He added very little sugar and chopped them up quite a bit, he called it "quince guggle." We picked the quince at the cemetery! Violet candies were around when I was young, square ones. Nasty. Not like violets, like fake violet perfume water.

    ReplyDelete
  12. my top advice for parma violets is don't get the giant ones. The small size are a pleasant throwback to being a child, the giants are just too much and taste like my Granny's soap instead of sweets.

    I'm glad you had so much fun on your shopping trip, it makes we wish I had something like that near me. Alas, all this town has is one Asian food shop that I'm scared to go in in case I look like an ignorant British fool.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I love International grocery stores too! We have one near us and it's my husband's favorite place to shop. He hasn't been in there for a year though because the isles are really narrow and it's typically very crowded.
    One fun thing for us this year has been getting to know more of our neighbors as we go for walks or just sit on our porch instead of staying cooped up inside. And we learned that a neighbor a few blocks over has a quince tree, and he shared a few with us this year! I made a quince jam, only I messed up the recipe because I only had 1/4 of the quince it called for, but I mistakenly put in the full recipe amount of cinnamon. So my quince jam is overpoweringly cinnamon and not so great in most applications. We did mix it with apples to make a cobbler and that was yummy, and I like it warmed up a little and poured over vanilla ice cream. I'll try again when the quince are back in season and see if I can get it right this time!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. *aisles, not isles! Although narrow isles in a market paints an interesting mental picture.

      Delete
  14. We've eaten quince paste with goat cheese for years. Bonus, you can get quince paste at my local "typical American" grocery store (Vons / Ralphs) with the fancy cheeses.

    ReplyDelete
  15. I LOVE Parma Violets. When my friend was going to school in Wales she sent me some, knowing my love of floral candies, and OMG, they're so perfect. Parmas, Anis De Flavigny violet and rose pastilles, and musk sticks, some of my favorite candies that taste like "an old lady's purse" according to most of my family and friends, LOL

    ReplyDelete
  16. If you loved the quince jam, look for membrillo, sometimes called quince paste. It comes in a block and you can slice it to have with cheese or bread (*divine* with manchego cheese). It is a mainstay of cheese and breakfast plates in Spain and Portugal.

    ReplyDelete
  17. I've been looking for this chicken recipe for an eternity! When I was a teen-ager an Iranian immigrant I knew made this. He cooked it over an open fire and it was so, so good! He reluctantly gave me the secret family-recipe and I thought: “Wow, I can't wait to cook this at home!” Well, I'm a rather terrible cook at times and I don't think he gave me the whole recipe. It was a disaster, to say the least. My mum was NOT happy. Now I think I'm going to have to give it another try!

    ReplyDelete
  18. That's such a cool idea! I recently signed up for a subscription box of international foods -- every month a new country! I'm working my way through Ukranian snacks right now, and it's really interesting.

    ReplyDelete
  19. I'm not sure of all the things you can't eat, but I had to share this recipe because it's become a favourite in our house—even though we use quinoa instead of freekeh: https://www.nomss.com/turkish-spice-beef-freekah-bowl/
    Onions are in the ingredients but not the actual recipe, so we skipped them the first time we made it and included them the second (fried with ground beef instead of strips) and there was no remarkable difference in taste.
    I'm so excited for the reviews in the next round!

    ReplyDelete
  20. Watermelon, Feta and mint is a great summer salad.

    ReplyDelete

Please be respectful when commenting; dissenting opinions are great, but personal attacks or hateful remarks will be removed. Also, including a link? Then here's your html cheat sheet: <a href="LINK ADDRESS">YOUR TEXT</a>