[Sca-cooks] Ethnic market epiphanies

[Johnna Holloway]

There are some guides.

Back in January 2004 I collected a list and published it--

Actually the guides already do exist---
Check out
Bruce Cost. Asian Ingredients.
Eve Zibart. The Ethnic Food Lover's Companion.
Linda Bladholm. Latin & Caribbean Grocery Stores Demystified.
Linda Bladholm. The Asian Grocery Store Demystified.
Linda Bladholm. The Indian Grocery Store Demystified.
There are many more---
Then there are the produce guides like
The Great Exotic Fruit Book.

Master A suggested the Von Welanetz Guide To Ethnic Ingredients.
---
In 2010 I suggested 

 Field Guide to Produce: How to Identify, Select, and Prepare Virtually Every Fruit and Vegetable at the Market. 

also The Edible Asian Garden will help.
Edible: An Illustrated Guide to the World's Food Plants 
 Vegetables from Amaranth to Zucchini: The Essential Reference: 500 Recipes, 275 Photographs by Elizabeth Schneider which is an encyclopedic volume. Your library may have it. It's too big to take to take shopping but it's a good source.

Cook's Guide To Asian Vegetables or Handy Pocket Guide To Asian Vegetables. 

By that time I was suggesting talking to the produce manager who may be able to help identify and provide more details. Back when I was able to drive and shop extensively I was on a first name basis with two or three produce managers at different stores. (I was after specialty citrus items and things like quince at the time.)

Lastly and this is what works best these days---
There's always
the take a photo with the cellphone. Then use the web to identify the produce in question.

My husband was in China last summer and sent me cellphone photos of certain items being served on the breakfast buffet.
I identified the fruits and sent the answers with links back to them in China.

Johnnae


On Mar 7, 2013, at 11:55 AM, "galefridus at optimum.net" <galefridus at optimum.net>

> snipped And a lot of what I find myself doing is learning how to identify items that are described only in languages other than English (East Asian and South Asian markets are the most challenging in this regard, at least to me).