Mayo in a tube and other European mysteries

The following is the third installment in a four-part series profiling the city's ethnic food markets.

It would seem that expatriates, no matter what their country of origin, seem to miss some of the same food stuffs from their native lands. Walk in any of the city's ethnic food markets and chances are good you'll find native coffee, as well as an array of native sweet and savory snack foods.

This is certainly the case at Siberia Food Market, a tiny Russian store at 100 Willow St. But Siberia also has something I didn't see in any other of the city's dozen or so ethnic food markets I visited recently:

That's right: bottled water. Now I've probably had bottled water in a dozen or so countries myself and I can tell you one thing: it all tastes pretty much the same. Which makes me wonder: what is about Russian bottled water that would create such a demand for the store to stock it? And how much do they sell? Is it really that much better than, say, Aquafina?

And the more I looked around Siberia, the more mysteries I encountered.

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Get your goat (and fufu) here

The following is the second installment in a four-part series profiling the city's ethnic food markets.

Goat meat has, apparently, become more and more in demand in Manchester. But you won't find it at Stop & Shop, Hannford or Shaw's. But for $3.50 per pound, The Spice Center, in the Maple Valley Plaza at 245 Maple Street, can hook you up.

Abdul, a butcher at The Spice Center, told me he sells close to 40 goats and lambs per week to the city's growing Middle Eastern, Pakastani and African populations.

He then invited me into his freezer:

As the name implies, The Spice Center does indeed sell spices and lots of them. And they're cheap.

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Shrimp snacks, ghee and brain masala, oh my

Note: this is the first in a four-part series profiling Manchester's ethnic food stores.

If, like me, you've been wondering where you might possibly be able find your favorite barbecue-flavored shrimp snacks, rest easy. I can report that they are waiting for you at Saigon Asian Market:

Saigon Asian Market, 93 Maple St., is one of about a dozen ethnic food stores in Manchester, where shoppers can get everything from Lebanese tahini to Indian ghee to German mayonaisse.

Don't let the fish smell turn you off, Saigon Asain Market is packed with good stuff, including the source of the pervading fish smell:

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Churros are great, but where's the sweet tea?

Come late summer, I’m not sure what I look forward to most: the empanadas and tamales at the Latino Festival or the spanakopeta and baklava at Glendi.

As one who likes to eat, I do enjoy Manchester’s festival season. This year’s gorging began this past weekend with the ever popular Latino Festival, as well as Greekfest 2008 at Assumption Greek Orthodox Church and Mahrajan, a Middle Eastern festival put on by Our Lady of the Cedars Melkite Catholic Church.

The culinary fun continues with the African Caribbean Celebration on August 23 and something called People Fest on September 6. Glendi, the mother of all Manchester festivals, wraps up Festival Season 2008 the weekend of September 12.

While the food at these festivals is what attracts most people, the best thing about festivals is that they provide the larger community a window into the cultures of the ethnic communities that host the events. The end result is greater understanding and tolerance. That and higher cholesterol levels.

But there is one community that has yet to establish its own festival here in Manchester. It is a community whose homeland is misunderstood and its inhabitants routinely mocked. I speak, of course, of the American South.

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