[Sca-cooks] Ethnic market epiphanies

Beth Harper lyndyn29 at gmail.com
Thu Mar 7 12:11:21 PST 2013


Just from the shopping list from my most recent feast -

kid and lamb, rose petal jam, lemon-quince and rose beverage syrups,
pomegranate molasses, bulb fennel, and lentils from a Persian grocer

quail and eggplant (both MUCH cheaper than mainstream supermarkets)
and wheat starch from a Southeast Asian grocer

dried pomegranate seeds, fresh sesame oil, nigella, edible camphor,
dates, and saffron from an Indian grocer.

I pretty much can't walk out of an Indian grocery store without
spices! In general, where SCA cooking is concerned, I like Middle
Eastern grocers for pre-made things (condiments, syrups and such) and
for fresh vegetables and red meat; Indian and Latin grocers for
spices, seafood, outrageously cheap cheese, and red meat, and
east/southeast Asian grocers for some vegetables, fruit, poultry, and
just about any non-wheat, non-corn alternatives (wheat starch, rice
flour, etc.).

And of course Russian and Polish places for Central and Eastern
European specialties - preserved wild mushrooms, millet, buckwheat
groats, salt-preserved fish. Cheeses! Cheeses are sometimes quite a
bit cheaper at an Eastern European market (though not usually cheaper
than Latin markets), and always more diverse.

So many other things I can' t think of off the top of my head! I shop
mainly in the Denver Metro (Barony of Caerthe, Outlands) area, fwiw.

Liepa

On Thu, Mar 7, 2013 at 9:24 AM,  <galefridus at optimum.net> wrote:
> One of the things that I had to learn fairly early on as I've been playing this game is where to shop for ingredients. Ethnic markets of one sort or another have played a major role in this process.



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