Email
Print
FeedGourmet Grocery Guide: Ethnic
The best meat, produce and more inside the city’s top grocery stores
PHOTOS BY JODI MILLER
Sensory overload
La Michoacana, 2175 Morse Rd., North Side
Here’s what happens when you walk into La Michoacana: You fall in love. Its charms are impossible to resist—sweet-smelling guavas alongside eight-pound bags of pinto beans and a butcher’s counter with thinly sliced steak and beef tripe. We’re partial to the Morse Road location of Liborio Alcauter’s homegrown supermarket chain—it sits in the middle of the burgeoning global food scene in the Northland area, home to many of the city’s newest arrivals. Plus, it’s the only place you can buy your groceries, delicious tacos from the attached café and a piñata under the same roof. If you’ve never ventured into any of the city’s array of ethnic markets, there’s no better place to start.
Don’t miss: That elusive cult-favorite drink: Mexican Coke. The sugar-sweetened beverage is, according to loyal imbibers, better than our high-fructose corn syrup-laden American version.
A Perfect Ten
Tensuke Market, 1167 Old Henderson Rd., Upper Arlington
We learned to love Japanese food in this two-room grocery store. While Tensuke Market can be pricier than other Asian outlets, it’s remarkable for its comprehensiveness: the same family owns several businesses all within walking distance of the Tensuke storefront, including a bakery, full-service restaurant and gift shop. But we’re especially partial to the bento boxes inside the grocery store, which, when paired with a freshly made, azuki-bean-stuffed pastry called an pan, makes a lunch worth traveling for. Don’t miss: Their selection of Japanese beauty products and home goods will give your kitchen (and bathroom) a bit of Far East inspiration.
WHILE YOU’RE OUT...CANDIED FENNEL SEEDS
Every grocery itch can be scratched along Sawmill Road—there seems to be at least one of every kind of store, including the Indian grocery chain Patel Brothers. And for ethnic-market newbies, candy and sweets, like these candy-coated fennel seeds, are an easy first purchase. Used as a post-meal breath freshener in India, these licorice-tasting psychedelic specks are just as tasty as a snack or used as sprinkles atop a mountain of vanilla ice cream. ($1 for 3.5 ounces at Patel Brothers, 6600 Sawmill Rd., Dublin)
Shop with a Chef
Mediterranean food imports, 2647 N. High ST., campus
We asked chef Bill Glover of Sage American Bistro if he liked the city’s ethnic markets, and he replied with an emphatic “yes.”
“There’s actually one right next to Sage that I go to all the time,” he told us. So we asked if we could tag along on a visit to Mediterranean Food Imports, the grocery that shares his restaurant’s south wall. He showed us some of his favorite finds and offered tips for first-time shoppers.
Produce: “You can buy pomegranates or sour plums by the piece. Sometimes we buy their miniature eggplants and stuff them. The stuff is really high quality and seasonal.”
Spices: “They really move through spices here, and I can come by and just get an ounce of something and it’ll be fresh. The owner introduced me to ground sumac, which has an earthy, tart smell and tastes great on light meats like chicken or fish.”
Olives: “We have their kalamata olives on our menu right now. I love their oil-cured Moroccan olives—they’ve got an almost leathery texture, and a richer, deeper, strong olive flavor. They’re great in a puree.”
Small bags of lentils, beans, and chickpeas: “Look at the size of Sage. We can’t use a 40-pound bag of black beans quickly enough, so these smaller bags are the right size.”
Oil: “They’ve got so much olive oil from all over the world. I grew up with Italian food, so I’m partial to the Italian ones, but they’ve got some good Greek ones too.”
First time here?
Glover admits ethnic markets can be daunting for a first-timer, especially if you’re worried about a language barrier. That’s not a problem at Mediterranean Food Imports, which is why he thinks it’s a great place to start exploring.
His recommendation? Start by finding a recipe you’re interested in cooking. Pick any cuisine—there’s probably a store in Columbus that carries that country’s hard-to-find ingredients. And then share your results with your family and friends. “You’ll nourish yourself and grow together,” Glover says.
Keeping Kosher
Kroger, 3675 E. Broad St., Whitehall
When owner Irv Szames shuttered longtime East Side standby Bexley Kosher Market in 2008, Columbus’ Jewish community lost its last fully rabbi-approved shopping experience. Fortunately, the Kroger in Whitehall stepped in to fill the grocery void. The store stocks the city’s biggest selection of kosher goods, with Manischewitz’s Passover-friendly potato-flour baking supplies, Israeli snack foods and gelatin-free marshmallows and candies. In addition, they’ve got Columbus’ only certified-kosher butcher, which means all the meat they sell has been prepared following traditional Jewish customs. There’s even kosher pizza and sushi (that means no cream cheese, shrimp or crab, among other things). And this year, it stepped up its offerings by adding Matt’s Bakery, which had operated a stand alone store on the East Side since 2005. Matt’s excels with their especially dense, eggy challah bread that’s borderline addictive. FYI: The bakery and deli sections are closed Friday night through Saturday night for the Sabbath, but you’re free to wander the aisles of non-perishable foods any time.
Illustrations by Paige Vickers
