Wednesday, June 25, 2014

FOREIGN AFFAIR AT FAIRWAY

It is no surprise that I shop at Fairway Market in Douglaston.  I have trouble keeping up with either their new items or ones that they have their own label on.

I watch a lot of the food show competitions as well as ones like Mystery Diner.  Recipes do not spark my interest.  The food and cuisines do.  Fairway certainly has a tremendous amount of ingredients and imported products from Italy.  I was looking to expand my own cooking with other cuisines as I explored the aisles.

Suddenly, I see a huge display regarding Asian fare of mostly Chinese and Japanese products of sauces, rice, nori (seaweed), rice wrappers, various jars of pickled ginger and more.  Into my basket they go.  I'm thinking Vietnamese summer rolls and get the rice wrappers and dipping sauce.  The rice wrappers can be used as a great bread substitute in making a sandwich.



Create my own maki rolls with other than raw fish.  Nori, sushi rice, pickled ginger, wasabi.  I come up with the protein and make sure I get cucumber.   Cooked and frozen shrimp works well for both the maki rolls and summer rolls.

I saw a new brand of the frozen shrimp with no chemicals and snatched a two-pounder.

There were some other products on a stand next to the sushi counter as well.  Kimchi was near the dairy aisle. 



A large display of sausages from around the world were situated across from the deli counter.   I would have tried a few if it weren't that I'm not in love with garlic.  They did have, however, these pretzel rolls for the sausage.   I decided to get chopped sirloin and shape them for burgers.  Sprinkle some Ponzu sauce and ginger on top.



Although there are many kosher items very little are from Israel.  Rather than make falafels from scratch, I opted for a frozen product that had the tahini sauce inside the falafel.  It was pretty good for frozen. 

An excuse for chocolate is it be imported from Belgium.   Fairway has their own brand and I saw a brand called Vosges that had a chocolate bar containing rooibus (from South Africa) and cherries.

While I was obtaining the chopped sirloin, I came across some new products.  One was duck confit and the other was smoked duck breast.  Duck confit is basically the use of the duck legs.  Neither had to be cooked.  Hmmm....slice it up and use it for a maki roll.  A sausage made from lamb looked tempting.  I need to bring a magnifying glass with me when I shop.  The fine print listed the garlic and something peppery.  

Seafood counter had two "foreign" fish.  One was turbot from Iceland and the other was perch from Africa.  I asked about whether the fish could be frozen.  I asked if arrived frozen.  I asked the wrong person.   I cut it up, portioned it out and froze.  It wasn't until I looked at the photo that I took when I noticed that the perch read that it was frozen and thawed.  Refreezing go me tossing it out and the perch had a definite "fishy" odor.  Question someone who knows and not one who simply does a task.




I also picked out a few items that had imported products from England, Ireland and India.  I bought one called "Korma", which I will try with some Naan bread...also sold here.   

Got a few tapenades, as well as the makings for guacamole.



Having gotten the Soda Stream machine, I have been drinking plain seltzer with a twist of lime.  Next time I have to get some Ubet chocolate syrup to make the perfect egg cream and check out some cookies from Carla Hall. 









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