No Passports Required

Your favorite international foods are available in Charlotte County

The joy of finding a beloved ingredient, treat or entrée from home is something everyone has experienced. Just ask a New Yorker what it’s like trying to find a decent pizza south of the Mason Dixon line, or a Philadelphian what it’s like trying to find an authentic cheese steak sandwich anywhere outside of Philadelphia. Now imagine what it’s like trying to find “home cooking” when you’ve jumped a continent or two.

As Charlotte County continues to grow, so does its diversity. According to the 2000 U.S. census, 8 percent of the county is foreign born. Because of this growing ethnic population, grocery stores and delis catering to different ethnicities are cropping up in Charlotte County. And they’re doing quite well.

Charlotte International Market

Fadia Lyons opened her eyes wide as she reached toward the freezer with all the enthusiasm of a child reaching for a treat. For a split second, she bordered on a delightful squeal.

“I can’t believe I found these,” she said, speaking of kibbeh, a kind of meatball made with minced meat and bulgur. Lyons is originally from Lebanon, and it was a meal she enjoyed there. Along with the kibbeh, she found Fortnum and Mason preserves at Charlotte International Market in Port Charlotte. “Wait until I tell my sister who lives in England that I found it here. I can’t believe it! Anyone from England would know that name."

Susanna Hishmeh has been watching this reaction from customers since February, beaming with pride every time it happens. She knows the feeling. An ethnic Lebanese growing up in Kuwait, Hishmeh has lived all over the world, finding foods she loved — and missed — with every new home. When she moved to Port Charlotte, she discovered international foods and ingredients where hard, sometimes impossible, to find. Remedy? Open her own store.

“I used to travel to Naples, Sarasota and Fort Myers,” she said. “And I got sick of it.”

Hishmeh doesn’t cater to one culture; she accommodates on a world-wide scale. The store is filled with delicacies and ingredients from England, France, Italy, Armenia, Spain and Morocco to name a few countries. Foods and spices have names like fenugreek, kabasa, kobe, linguica, chorizo, acai and acerola pulp, lemon curd and blood pudding. Nuts, honeys and chocolates from all over the world sit neatly on shelves. Russian caviar, escargot and a prized Scottish salmon, Gravadlax, can be found here. Freezers full of duck, quail and rabbit sit next to freezers filled with an array of breads.

Along with the grocery items, Hishmeh has opened a small deli counter. Sesame cookies with pistachios are among the homemade treats she serves along with Turkish coffee, which she said is “stronger than espresso.”

The store’s reputation for hard-to-find gourmet ingredients has even impressed some of Hishmeh’s suppliers. Robert Rothschild Farm actually designed several recipes for the store: Tandoori shrimp bites, stuffed squash with apricot ginger mustard and raspberry cloud.

Hishmeh also caters events and supplies food to country clubs and restaurants in the area. Gift baskets and cookie trays from the store have been in high demand.

Her next endeavor? “I’m looking to do some cooking classes,” she said. “People are interested in them. And I love it when people come to the store asking for a particular item and they say, ‘Oh, my God, you have it!’”

La Piazza: The Italian Market

Mike Papa looks around the deli and grocery store he and his wife, Michelle, own with pride. “This is a dream come true,” he said with a smile. “I’ve always had a passion for food.”

A passion for food is a family tradition. Michelle’s uncle, Mario Cucich, is an executive chef in New York. While working construction jobs, Mike himself always worked part time in family and friends’ restaurants. After moving from Long Island, he decided he wanted his own place. With Uncle Mario’s help, the Papas opened La Piazza in Punta Gorda.

Though having his own shop may be the fruition of a fantasy, it ends an annoyance for Papa. “I was getting frustrated that I had to go to Cape Coral, Fort Myers and Sarasota for good Italian meat,” he said.

There is no shortage of Italian meats at La Piazza. Cappicola, six-year-aged prosciutto and pancetta — an Italian bacon that is cured, but not smoked — are all readily available. “There’s nothing like pancetta. It can be hard to find, so people will use regular bacon, but oh, it’s not the same,” he said with a smile, his eyes rolling as if he can smell it cooking.

These meats, along with chicken cutlets, can be found in La Piazza’s heroes. All five New York boroughs have a sandwich named for them, but so do locations in Manhattan, including Broadway, Penn Station, Lexington and Fifth Avenue. “The Little Italy is our best seller,” Papa said of the monster sandwich of ham, cappicola, salami, pepperoni, mortadella, provolone, roasted peppers, lettuce, tomatoes, oil and balsamic vinegar.

There’s more than meat at La Piazza. Imported pastas, cheeses, espresso and sweets, such amaretti cookies and il pandoro cake, are stocked. Michelle brews fresh espresso and cappuccino. Italian ice teas and an espresso coffee soda named Manhattan Special chill in the refrigerator.

Fresh and homemade are two things you hear a lot at La Piazza. Working with a local farmer, Mike uses fresh tomatoes, herbs and other vegetable to make his homemade marinara sauce, which is actually Uncle Mario’s recipe. The rice balls and cannoli are also homemade.

“Fresh ingredients just completely change the whole flavor of the dish,” he said. “My rule is, ‘If I wouldn’t eat it, I won’t serve it here.’”

Caribbean Oriental Specialties

On any given day at Caribbean Oriental Specialties, Natasha Miller runs between the grocery section and restaurant side of the store her father, Kingsley Jackson, owns. But she’s never so busy that she can’t have short conversations with her customers. “You home from school?” she asked one college-age customer as she rung up his order. She greeted another who was searching through the containers of frozen oxtail and goat in the back of the store. From there, it’s back to the restaurant to attend to another customer.

“Miss Tash!” he said. “Soup to go, please.” On this day in particular, the restaurant is filled with the delightful smoky smell of jerk chicken, a Jamaican specialty served at the store on Fridays. There’s also the tangy smell of curry and the sweet smell of fried breadfruit, which tastes similar to a plantain, but meatier.

“My grandparents, Beryl and Charles, opened the store almost 20 years ago,” Miller said as she filled a to-go box with rice and salt fish. “We had to relocate recently because of the demand for the jerk chicken.”

The chicken doesn’t seem to be the only item in demand. The store is filled with customers looking for sarsaparilla soda, ginger beer, fresh and sugar tamarind, spice bun, pickled pig tail and mackerel — just about anything from home.

“We ship stuff to the Caribbean once a month,” Miller said, smiling at the irony of families paying to ship Caribbean items from the U.S. to the Caribbean.

The store is well organized. Fresh produce, like yellow, white and negro yams and fresh mango and jackfruit, take up one aisle. In another are dried goods like lemongrass, ginger and sorrel teas and the famous Blue Mountain coffee. Festival mix — used to make dumplings — is popular around the holidays.

“This we can’t keep in the store,” Miller said, pulling boxes of Walkerswood jerk seasoning and savory sauce closer to the front of the shelf.

Dried beans, including jars of channa — a roasted yellow split pea that looks like peanuts and is popular in Guiana — also line the shelves. At the other end of the store are herbs such as sorrel, nutmeg, cerasee bush — which also grows wild in Florida, according to Miller — and Irish moss, often brewed to make drinks.

“People always use them to make drinks around the holidays,” Miller said. “It’s just like the cranberries. People will come in and buy them and let them marinate in wine for a year before they use them in a rum cake.”

Beside the groceries and the food, Caribbean Oriental Specialties serves as sort of a meeting place. Breakfast is served on Saturdays. And once a month, there is a dominos tournament.

“It’s big in Jamaica,” Miller said with a smile.