If I were less intellectually rigid, I’d use every trip to Global Foods to buy a product I’ve never tried from another culture to expand my culinary horizons. That’s what N always does. But it never occurs to me to depart from the tired old selections of forever.
Rigidity
Clarissa's Blog 
“to buy a product I’ve never tried from another culture to expand my culinary horizons”
What I used to do was look up ethnic/immigrant grocery stores and buy a bunch of stuff that I had no idea what it was. There were often (by no means always) English instructions and sometimes I just winged it (in retrospect it’s probably a miracle I never poisoned myself….).
There were lots of misses but also some great discoveries. I hated fruitcake until I had Jamaican fruit cake you pretty much cannot go wrong with any Jamaican baked good (in another Jamaican store the owner spent about 20 minutes going over the benefits of various ‘tonics’ (IIRC) promising that they would ‘buck me up’ (the ingredients showed they were mostly were basically sugar and alcohol with unnamed herbs).
Before the internet I’d also buy random cassette tapes and/or videotapes and/or magazines when possible. At one point I probably had 50 Thai cassette tapes – great stuff.
I’m sure there must be some ethnic grocery stores in St Louis. Give yourself an assignment to go to one a month and buy 10 (at least 5 or 3) things that you have no idea what they are (maybe ask the owners what to do with it).
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It’s a great idea. I never tried anything Jamaican, by the way. Even though there was a large Jamaican community in Montreal. Life is passing me by!!!
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