The more global the world becomes, the more we have access to great recipes from around the world. The problem is, they aren’t always readily available on our supermarket shelves.
Have you ever spent the good part of a day trying to find a specific ingredient for a recipe? Maybe you had to spend an hour or two on research alone because you had no idea what it was or where to find it. And perhaps it was something so singular, you had to special order it online and wait 5 to 7 business days before finally being able to tackle that particular recipe.
For the most part, there are always acceptable substitutes. Sometimes, you can simply omit the ingredient and call it a day. But once in a while, a recipe actually hinges on one or two specific items, or perhaps you’re trying to create a particular dish for someone and you know it just won’t be the same without that ingredient. There are a few options in Devonport for you to look for a hard to find ingredient.
Fourways Fruit & Veg pride themselves on a wide range of locally sourced fruit and vegetables, but they often have some more exotic fresh ingredients such as green mango, green papaya, long melon, daikon, snake beans, okra, kohl rabi, Enoki and Shiitake mushrooms. You can also find delicious Baklava, almond crescents, mixed petit fours, and other specialty grocery items.
Feeling like an Asian banquet? Devonport Asian Grocery , also in Fourways, boasts a lot of Indian and many Asian dry ingredients. It’s a great place to get the staples you need for a host of beautiful Asian recipes.
Hill Street Grocery is a one stop shop for fresh and dry ingredients. Specialising in Asian, Indian and Mexican ingredients, they also have a huge selection of herbs and spices, condiments, an impressive cheese selection and deli, beautiful breads, meats, seafoods and a good selection for those with special dietary requirements.
Health food shops such as Natures Works (in the Rooke Street Mall and Fourways), The Health Nut (East Devonport), and Help Yourself Wholefoods (Oldaker Street) may have besan, amaranth, grains and lentils etc., that are used in ethnic cooking.
So next time you’re looking for that special ingredient, look to the locals first. You might be surprised at what you find.
