Boulevard, November/December 2005

I find that food offers one of my greatest pleasures when I visit other countries. Not just eating exotic and unfamiliar dishes, but savouring foreign cuisine at the source: the produce stall, the family-run grocery, the fresh seafood vendor, the patisserie. You learn a lot about a place and its people while wandering through open-air markets, inhaling the heady mix of scents and admiring the displays, or by lining up with the locals to buy bread or cheese or fruit in a small shop that may not have seen another tourist for months.

Recently, suffering from itchy feet and a hunger for far-away places but lacking the wherewithal to jump on a plane, I decided to satisfy my yearnings closer to home and embarked upon a journey of discovery to stores specializing in selling food from abroad.

The obvious place to begin was in the neighbourhood that refutes the myth of Victoria as a chip off the old English block. Dating back to the mid-1800s, Victoria’s Chinatown was the first – and for a nearly a century, the largest – Chinese community in Canada. Today it remains a colourful, bustling world of culture and commerce that spills out onto the sidewalks and draws you in, whether or not you come planning to shop.

Inside the deep, narrow, dimly lit stores, the shelves are crammed with goods that are mostly mysterious to me. Some packages are labelled with Chinese characters only, but even when there are English translations I’m not necessarily any the wiser. What, for instance, does one do with the root of straight ladybell? Not that it matters. I simply enjoy trying to find the most unusual products possible. Preserved duck eggs, shredded dried pork (available in either crisp or soft), instant peanut paste powder and preserved lettuce are all contenders, though I realize they may be as common as Kraft dinner in many kitchens.

I pause over a package of lotus seed noodles bearing cooking instructions that begin with a request to “please boilize your favorate ingredient” and end by announcing “it’s edible now!” The quirky directions tempt me to buy them, but today I’m travelling light, so I replace them on the shelf and carry on.

Warm smiles and the nose-wrinkling smell of dried shrimp greet me as I enter the Jia Hua Trading store. As in other Chinatown groceries, most of the conversation that goes on up front while I browse the aisles is unfathomable to my Euro-lingual ears – the perfect soundtrack for my escapist mission. On my way out I notice an elderly woman seated near the cash register counter, filling net bags with beige fruits the size of large marbles. I ask what they are and she answers with a name I’ve never heard before, but is unable to elaborate in English when my lack of comprehension shows on my face. Undaunted, she peels one of the fruits, revealing a translucent ball inside, which she gives me to eat. It is sweet and juicy. I thank her and promise myself to buy a bag of her longans on my next excursion.

Lingering by the Gate of Harmonious Interest I spot a new enterprise in the Yen-Wo Society building on the opposite side of Government Street. It turns out to be I Kyu Noodles, a retail outlet selling fresh and frozen, ready-to-cook noodles, wontons and pot stickers. Owner Carlos Chan, who operated previous incarnations of this three-generation business in Richmond and Miami, is eager to tell me about his wares. All the noodles, wrappers and fillings are made from scratch using local mainly ingredients. Chan’s passion is sure to make his planned Saturday cooking demonstrations a hit.

From Chinatown, I make my way to Fort Street to investigate another newcomer to Victoria’s ethnic food scene. Choux Choux Charcuterie is a traditional European-style delicatessen with distinct Gallic spirit. Its mustard-yellow walls, hung with photos and posters from France, and terracotta-red ceiling render the vintage 1939 shop warmly inviting. The window bays framing the door are filled with enticing examples of the delicacies found inside – foie gras, apple and calvados jelly, lavender-infused honey and figs in syrup, to name but a few. However, the real stars are the artisanal cheeses and housemade sausages and pâtés. My mouth waters as I read the labels. Organic pheasant and walnut terrine. Boudin blanc sausage with sweetbreads and truffles. Next to them in the cooler are tall jars of French cornichons, wine sauerkraut and olives. Visions of a picnic in the park come to mind.

My next stop is an outpost of the Middle East near the corner of Douglas and Bay. Seven Valleys Fine Food and Deli has been a favourite of mine ever since Nahid and Shahrokh Golestani opened it 10 years ago. On a previous visit, Nahid told me how she and her husband fled Iran with their two young children to escape persecution for their Bahá’í faith. Travelling by night and hiding by day, they reached Turkey, where they stayed for 11 months before immigrating to Canada.

The store’s shelves are laden with products from Iran, Turkey, Greece, the Arabian Peninsula and Israel, including kosher foods. Fresh offerings include Persian lavash bread, bulk olives and an array of feta cheeses. Want some suitable dinner music to go with your Middle Eastern feast? They also sell Turkish, Arabic and Persian tapes and CDs.

Feeling slightly jetlagged, I push on to my final destination of the day – an eclectic international enclave located at the intersection of Quadra and Tattersall, where the venerable Italian Bakery rubs shoulders with the Philippines-Oriental Village and the B&V Market.

At first glance the B&V seems like any other corner grocery, but back past the usual selection of snack foods, emergency supplies and magazines you’ll find the merchandise that makes it unique. Not only does the store carry a wide variety of provisions from India, it also has a Jamaican section that features frozen patties and tinned items such as solomon gundy (smoked herring paste), calalou (a leafy vegetable) and ackee (the country’s national fruit). Anyone craving the flavours of the Indian subcontinent can choose between several dozen different masala blends or simply buy a bag of papdi gathiya (chick pea flour crisps) for immediate consumption. Non-food products include henna powder and incense.

After my Indian-Jamaican exploration I have time for only one more stop, so I choose novelty over familiarity. For some reason – a weakness for the Italian Bakery’s crostata di frutta, perhaps – I’ve never checked out the Philippines-Oriental Village before. It’s high time I did. I know next to nothing about Filipino cuisine, and this is the place to learn. Various national dishes are served in the café or as take-out orders, or you can buy the ingredients to make them yourself. Where else in town can you find adobo seasoning, steamed white cake mix, frozen greens imported directly from the Philippines and tins of spicy squid cubes or bittermelon in coconut cream?

I arrive home with neither photographs nor souvenirs, but with two things I treasure as a traveller: memories and inspiration for future trips. I’ve only just begun to tap the local globe-trotting, food-shopping opportunities. Next time I’m struck by wanderlust, I know where I’ll be headed.