Global Foods and Jay's Foods are the 2 biggest International food markets in the St. Louis area, but we have quite at least 8 other international food markets and many culture-specific stores in the area.
Global Foods is about 3 miles from our home, and we go there quite often. At Global, for example, there is an isle dedicated to each ethnicity, with some isles sharing more than one culture. (They have the specific flags flying above the isle, along with the names of each country:
Poland, Bosnia, Germany, Mexico, Japan, China, India, Russia, and several more.
Many of the foods have their entire labels written in the native language of that particular country, with no English translation on the package.
Even though we definitely have our favorite foods from around the globe, each time we shop there, we make a point to get a few of our favorites- and also a few things that 'I have no idea what it is, but I'm going to find out!"
With very rare and few exceptions (like a Balut egg!), I will try any and everything. I have a friend that was born without arms - not even stumps - and he has lived his entire adult life alone, with no assistive devices. How does he do it? He never lost the flexibility of his lower limbs that a baby has naturally. (Ever see a baby gleefully sucking on his toes???) This man can comb his hair with a part so straight that is scares me, give himself an impeccably clean shave, button his shirt - AND his pants, play guitar, and drive a standard car with no alterations, whatsoever, etc, etc, etc. When I asked him, "how do you do it?" He told me that if he wanted to remain independent, he had no choice but to maintain the flexibility that we all had since we were babies.. Keeping the senses and the brain equally as malleable prevents one from getting "OLD". I'm not talking about 'old' as the general time that anything that has been on the face of this earth, I'm talking about "OLD", as in constricted, sheltered and narrow-minded, and all-too-willing to defend such a mental status.
At 45 yrs. old, there is a good chance that I will NOT become one of those people. :D
(If you want BOTH mental and physical Calisthenics, go to the St. Louis City Museum - but wear a good pair of tennis shoes, and it would behoove you to buy a quality pair of knee pads, and have them strapped on when you walk in the door!)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balut_(egg)
- Michael
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