Global Foods - Now Open

I checked it out last night. I caught a little whiff of fish as I walked in, but oddly, I smelled nothing when I was actually in the fish section. Man, they have a good selection of produce! I'm a fairly adventurous eater, but I have no idea what to do with probably 1/4 of what they have. Good deals on produce and staple items like cornmeal, rice, and spices. But yeah, stuff like shampoo, cereal, etc. seemed pretty expensive.

 

We went early this morning and the produce was AMAZING and freaking dirt cheap.

Beautiful strawberries for $.99, Asian/Korean Pears, 10lbs Seedless Watermelon, Cantaloupes, honeydews, kiwi fruits, seedless grapes.

We are definitely impressed with the produce.

 

I really really love this place and hope it stays open. There's never anyone in it when I go. I went this morning and got all of this for only $32.

 

ummm...mind if I ask what you're making with the fennel?

 

I don't have a plan for this batch yet. I usually use it like I would yellow onion. Roast it or sauté it. I used it on a pizza with Gorgonzola last week.

 

I go just about every Monday morning and I love that I can get 4-5 bags of fresh fruits and veggies for under $20. When I bring the 3 yr old he loves naming the fruits and veggies and smelling everything. The older child doesn't like chocolate and we found something like vanilla oreos in the Hispanic section. They are called Can Can and they are 12 individually wrapped 4 packs of cookies. Not bad for $1.60. The spices are also very reasonably priced compare to HT or Giant.

I wish I knew what to do with some of the more exotic (to me) things. Like what do you do with a prickly cactus leaf? Or some of the more unusual pointy melons. It would be nice if they posted a little recipe above some of the things.

 

I can't wait to test out some of the amazing fish in my smoker. I'm a big fan of Global Foods, if only for the meat & produce...love experimenting with the exotic stuff too.

 

I love it when folks try ethnic foods, here are a few suggestions:

Prickly Cactus Leaf - this is one of my personal favorites, I like to use it in jello cups and/or fruit salads - they go great with a kiwi, fuji apple, asian pear & carrot salad
Directions on how to cook it:

1) Blanch the cactus (for 2-3 minutes) and peal the outer "shell" off.
2) Dice up the "meat"
3) Put in a fruit salad or jello

Pointy Melons - I love to grill them (just for a minute or too), it caramelizes the natural sugar and is a great topper on Vanilla ice cream

1) If you have a juicer - try juicing the mellon
2) If you have little ones - I like to make popsicles with exotic fruit
3) Grill the mellon

An easy way to introduce new fruits is to put them into a fruit salad, but there is one pointy mellon like fruit I stay away from - Durian, it smells so bad and taste like rotten onion custard.

Hope this helps

 

That may be but I LOVE Durian.

 

Yeah, I wish I knew what to do with half the stuff too! I should write down stuff that looks interesting and look it up when I get home.

 

Prickly Pear margaritas are mighty yummy!!

 

yea, just write down the name of the fruits and veggies that are interesting and do a google search for recipes that use it... and sometimes I will do the reverse, like look up a cuisine first and investigate some of the common ingredients for dishes that we might like.

One of my new favorites = Turtle Salad (from Russia)

2 cans of sardines
3 eggs
1 small onion
1 cup of a soft, white cheese
mayonnaise

Mash the sardines with a fork and spread along the bottom of a pie dish. Hard boil the eggs. Separate the egg white from the yolks, mash the egg whites and mix with the diced onion. Place this mixture on top of the sardines. Grate the cheese and spread along the top and sides. Spread mayonnaise over the the cheese covering as if icing a cake. Mash the egg yolks and sprinkle to cover the mayonnaise. Chill and serve.

 

that sounds rich and yummy. i'll have to try that!

 

I think I'll need to bring a notebook with me to write down the names of some of the more exotic produce. Other than durian, I can't remember the name of anything.