Where I live there's been a flourishing of ethnic supermarkets opening and I'm always looking for an excuse to go in and explore. I've been looking for chicken hearts at all the Western supermarkets as I adored them grilled over charcoal when I was living in Klong Toey, Bangkok but they're not stocked. I finally stumbled across them at the new Natura supermarket which stocks Turkey, Greece, Iran, Italy, Balkans, Middle East and Polish foods and a few others. They, like similar new entries have a full fish counter and butcher unlike the plastic cling film wrap of our supermarkets, but the real challenge is where do I start in order to try things out?
There's just too much choice, so I've decided to hone in and focus on one single product which is canned ethnic soups and stews. I'm also checking what's available in Western supermarkets so any exceptional products of note will be included in this series.
The first banger is this Iranian Ashe Reshte by Anjoman which is a Persian Greens, Herbs, Beans and Noodles soup. There's no point trying to describe how it tastes as my lovely Maltese Mother raised us children on ethnic foods so I'm into different tastes and people aren't the same, but you can judge by the ingredients if it's your thing too. Not every Iranian soup I've tried is to my taste, but this is lovely, complex yet subtle new entry on my shopping list and each time I stock up I notice something else I want to try which feels like a more organic way of discovering new things.
Lastly a key driver of this new Soup Nazi of the world endeavour is that Western Brands, particularly the most promoted are invariably tarnished with toxic ingredients that are carcinogenic as any fool knows we're being poisoned if you follow the mainstream lifestyle much like Western allopathic medicine is designed to kill, not heal us.
