Ebony "The Xenophile" T.'s Profile

All I have to say is that I spontaneously combusted once entering this culinary wonderland.  I am still picking up the pieces of myself.  This places has everything.....I saw durian (the stinky treasured Asian delicacy), culantro (this is so hard to find outside of Latin grocers...it is not cilantro...it is a broad leafed herb that has a distinct taste similar to cilantro but is in it's own category), all kinds of rice....bhutanese red rice, red cargo rice, sweet sticky rice, brown basmati, brown jasmine, oh happy happy joy joy......this place has it all.  It's a bit overpriced I must say but you can't find a variety of food from ALL over the world anywhere else unless you become Anthony Bourdain and get your travel on.  I would prefer the latter....but since that is not in my cards for now.....I will come back to Jungle Jim's to get my fix!

So I walked into this little hole in the wall market that is located off W. Elder St. here in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio.  I am not a nasty nati native.  I am a Detroit native but anyone who knows me, knows that no matter where I go I find ethnic markets....it is like my sixth sense.  I walked into this market and I have to say....it is the most diverse ethnic market I have been into.  Where can you go and find canned Callaloo and ackee, a plethora of gluten-based vegetarian meats, israeli couscous, hummus, along with many cans of arabic beans, a medicinal herb section that was out of this world, along with many Vietnamese selections (It IS a Vietnamese market after all!).  They also had a nice variety of gluten-free baking products, dishes, cookware (such as carbon steel woks), and many other cooking utensils.  The owner was friendly and healthful.  This store is a culinary ADD person's paradise (I am indeed ADD and a food fanatic and unashamed!)  I was overstimulated and delighted.  There was one drawback.....their refrigerator was broken that housed "cold drinks"....I really wanted a cold bottle of young coconut water.  As suggested by the first reviewer of this market.....they are ORGANIZED.....there is nothing better than organized chaos...YES!  I definitely recommend a visit.

This is the best place to get Iraqi cuisine.  I love this meatcentric place!  The best kabobs....meat with no chaser!

This little store is another among the plethora of tiendas selling Mexican/tropical goods here off of Chopin and McGraw.  What made this place memorable was that in one of their refrigerated cases they have a whole chain of  sandwiches one being called Big Az Chicken....Classic!  I am sure these processed pre-packaged jewels will give you a BIG AZ stomach ache!

So all you caribeños here in Detroit this is the place to get all the Goya products and spices for your Island cooking.  It is small but has a nice selection of goods for Puerto Rican and Dominican Dishes.  Some of their fresh stuff is not that great but boy did they have some huge coco malangas and ñames, yautio, etc.  The guy working the cash register was a cute helpful Dominican so that made me give them three stars instead of two.  Yes I am partial....what can I say.

This is a little hole in the wall market that specializes in Mexican and Central American goods.  When I walked in my first thought was "No they don't have carpet up in here!"  Then, I was very turned off by the disorganization and uncleanliness.  It looked like basically the store itself sneezed and the products just lay where they fell.  However, the one redeemable thing about this place is its aisle of Guatemalan goods.  I got so excited to see mosh de avena (oat atol), pacaya in jars (Pacaya palm flowers that are eaten as a vegetable and are usually fried in an egg batter and bathed in a tomato salsa), whole cobanero chiles (a naturally smoky hot chile that is used as a condiment and predominantly in the turkey stew ka'kik), pepitoria molido (ground punkin seeds for granizadas aka snow cones), Prepackaged sauce for hilachas, frijoles colorados (small red beans), arroz amarilla empaquetado (dried yellow rice), and other spices that are specific to Gautemalan cuisine.  That made me very nostalgic and happy and it helped me get past the rest of the store.  I walked out missing Guatemala.  So this little store gets two star instead of one.

Okay now listen up folks this place is real authentic guatemalan style fried chicken.  I have lived in Guatemala and this place is the only place I have found that is for real.  First the name of this place drew my attention.  Pollo Chapín (Chapín is a adjective that Guatemalans use to describe themselves and other things that are uniquely Guatemalan.  Guatemalans call themselves chapines.)  Have you ever heard of Pollo Campero? It is a fried chicken chain that originated in Guate that makes KFC really mean Kentucky Fried Caca (poop!)  Pollo Chapín is better because it is down home cooking and not mass produced.  Pollo Campero is still good though lol.  The owners are Guatemalan, this is NOT a Mexican place.  If you really want to get some treats ask for the Atol, there are all kinds of variety of this thick filling beverage, usually drank hot for breakfast.  Guatemalan atoles are traditional cornstarch-based thick hot drinks, yet atoles can also be made from, dried green beans (habas) rice and milk, liquified plantains as in atol de platano or arroz con leche and oatmeal flour ex. atol de avena.  You can see all the different types of atol here:  http://antiguadailypho...

In Guate (abbreviation for Guatemala city) at the bus stop you can see women selling different types of atoles, the most well known one is atol blanco (white atol)  I asked in Spanish for atol blanco and the owner was so happy she gave me and my friend some for free to taste it.  It is not on the menu, I was thrilled felt like I was back in Guatemala again.  I have really missed their food.  They have Gautemalan tamales which are not like the Mexican ones at all, they are steamed in a banana leaf and the masa is moist and soft, it is almost like eating a savory custard.  It usually has chicken in it and sometimes pork.   The fragrant banana leaf really makes it special.  Tamales are usually eaten around Christmas and are black (with a chocolate mole-type sauce), and red.  Their are also chuchitos, tamalitos and many other variances that there just isn't enough time and space to go into.  You could litterally write a bound volume about the variety of tamales that are out there in Guatemala and Mexico.  The only Mexican tamale that is close to what the Guatemalan ones taste like is a tamal oaxaqueño which is one of the southern states of Mexico so the food is very much influenced by the indigenous people (for example, the Zapotec and the Mixtec are the two main groups but there are many others), .  You have to try it.  Don't let the silken texture of it fool you into thinking it is more healthy it is not, this is a very rich dish.  So don't go overboard.  I learned the hard way in Guatemala!  Only eat one at a time and one is usually way more than enough!

They also have curtido (guatemalan pickled vegetables) and remolachas, which is pickled beet salad (my favorite!) which you usually see on enchiladas (which are totally different from Mexican ones) or tostadas. See those here:
http://antiguadailypho...

You can have the pickled vegetables as a side dish to accompany your tamal.   I wish they served other platos típicos like:
pepían (,http://antiguadailypho...)

kak'ik (http://antiguadailypho...)  and

Jocón (http://antiguadailypho...)
but these dishes are labors of immense love and tastiness that there just isn't enough time to make when you are frying the best chicken in town!  

Ok I have gotten way off base here.  It was so exciting to find this place.  I went to it in July and I wasn't yelping yet so wasn't able to post my rave review yet.

Bottom line:
*You need to eat the chicken like all species of chicken are going to be wiped out tomorrow and today is the last day to taste real good fried chicken.

*You need to try the atol blanco and let the creamy, sweet, buttery, aromatic warmth fill your belly

* You must also have the remolacha (pickled beet salad) with a tamal

Then you have gotten a little taste of what Guatemala has to offer to the culinary world....You get a real taste of the Maya in Guatemalan food.  I encourage all to go there and see for themselves!

Oxtails, jerk chicken, curry goat, rice and peas, beef patties, fried plantains....are you salivating yet?  If not, you should be cause that's some good eats.  For two years consecutively I have eaten at Rono's booth at Concert of Colors (if you don't know what that is...it is only the best free world music festival in Michigan that happens the third weekend of July every year....for all you other xenophiles our there you would love it so do come next year! sorry okay back to the review) and I have always been satisfied.  I usually get the oxtail with rice and peas and some fried plantain.  Usually at the festival I don't think the variety of their menu is shown...I could be wrong.  But bottom line, I have always enjoyed everything I have eaten with them and it was authentic.  So check them out!

I came across this store around 3 years ago.  My friends at Jeramm Westside Oriental Store referred me to this place also.  This place also is Filipino. They have a wide variety of frozen greens, like taro leaves, sweet potato leaves, squash blossoms, etc.  They also have seasonally winter melon, kabocha, frozen and smoked milk fish, and many other Filipino specialty items.  I have only been to this store around three times and I have yet to fully immerse myself in it.  It is about the same size as the other store but a different variety of goods.  Overall,I liked the service I recieved there, the prices are reasonable and I will definitely keep going back!

I was not too impressed.  I kept being told that I can't leave SF without trying some Mexican food there.  So I stopped into this place and the food was alright.  Here in Detroit we have a sizeable community of Mexicans in the southwest part of the city and I have to say that we have some pretty great Mexican restaurants and taquerías.  I didn't realize how good it was until now.  I am sure there are other very good Mexican restaurants in SF but this was just an okay one.