New Feature! World Food Market Tours: Russian & Eastern European Food

I am very excited to announce the newest feature on Fresh-Picked Seattle!  

Like many people who love to cook, I am fascinated by the food products of other countries. Also like many people who love to cook, I love to visit the grocery stores in foreign countries almost as much as I like to visit a museum or tourist hot spot. What better way to try to learn about another culture than to see how everyday folks like me feed themselves their regular meals?

But I don't have to travel outside the Seattle area to see the foods of other regions and countries: we have a lot of great specialty markets right here in the Puget Sound area.  Exploring them has been a favorite weekend activity for me and my food-loving friends.

Of course, I (often) have no clue what I'm looking at. I am still relatively new to cooking, and newer still to learning about the foods of certain regions. But I love to investigate, and I decided to turn my own education into a little series here on the site.

Over the next few months, I'll be posting the photos from visits to local world food markets I'm making with native chefs from those countries. They'll walk me through the products, give us some ideas for what we can do with what we find there, and fill us in a bit on the cooking culture of their home countries.

I am beyond excited about this project! It brings together so many of my favorite things: food and cooking (and grocery stores!), photography, home economics, culture, language, and most importantly for me, the opportunity to be nosy and ask a lot of questions! 

So here is the first one: Russian and Eastern European Cuisine at European Foods on Aurora. My awesome guide was Irina Vodonos of Moscow Gourmet Kitchen. Check it out!

And stay tuned...next up is Indian food at Apna Bazaar with Karuna!