Wide-Ranging

Today we shopped for dinner at Global Foods Market in Kirkwood, which is the biggest international grocery store I've ever been in. Each aisle of the store has items from a different country, and the produce, meat, dairy, and frozen sections of the store are also organized by region of the world. There are people of every nationality shopping for ingredients from their native lands.

I've been in the store a few times before. During my previous visits, I spent a long time wandering down every aisle of the store, looking at all the stuff I've never tried before and buying things I was already familiar with. Today Tony and I decided we were going to be adventurous and purchase a complete meal from the store.

Each item came from a different part of the world. We bought:

• A packet of dry mix for minestrone soup from Croatia

• Tofu crackers from Indonesia (which we added to the soup like you would fried wonton strips)
  

• Chicken kabanosy sausage from Poland (similar to kielbasa, but richer)
  

• French Emmenthaler cheese

• Russian-style half sour pickles

• Canned jackfruit in syrup fromThailand

• Gelato (from Gelato Di Riso, which is actually a local company, but according to their Website they make authentic Italian Gelato!)

The evening turned out to be quite international. We listened to Radio Rio, which showcases Brazilian music, on KDHX while we prepared and ate the meal. I served the Eastern European soup in Chinese soup bowls with flat-bottomed soup spoons, and the main course on Wedgewood stoneware from England. To go with dessert I brewed some tea that son Brian brought us from The Butchart Gardens in Canada.

Everything tasted great, and we even have enough left over for lunch tomorrow.