Murf: The poster child for globalization

On Saturday, I tagged along with Big A and his mom to various ethnic bakeries and shops. In just a few short hours, I went from the Ukraine to Japan with a stop in the Middle East and Scotland in between:

The Ukraine via Detroit
In the third world-like section of Detroit lives a sausage place that smokes their own sausage (only 1 of 2 still allowed to do so in the city of Detroit). Big A's mom was familiar with this place having had worked in Detroit and she kept telling us about this sausage place that was similar to my maiden name (also of Ukrainian flavor) so whenever it was talked about it, they kept referring to it as my maiden name. Finally I got to see it:

It's spelled quite different (notice the lighted sign in the window)but I can see how they would resemble each other in pronunciation. Inside was a plethora of Russian and Polish items on the shelves to buy and all the smoked meats and pierogies behind the counter. While they had jars of heat and eat borscht, all that was missing was the Russian nesting dolls (matryoshka dolls) to buy. I was a bit bummed that they didn't have authentic ones there to purchase but then again, it would take years for the smoked sausage smell to leave the wooden dolls.

Next...

The Middle East via Dearborn
Dearborn has one of the largest Iraqi populations outside of Iraq. On Saturday, we hit the Golden Bakery. Home to many fine stuffed bread items, a wood burning oven...and potato chip-like bags of churros (those crazy Iraqis). I really wanted to get a picture of everyone working and shopping and the wood burning oven but I chickened out and got one of the outside instead:


I had never been to this part of Dearborn but had always wanted to visit it so as we were headed to our third stop, I took pictures out of the car window:






The one shot I missed and wished I had was of a place called the Baghdad Market. Next time.

Next...

Scotland
Our third stop of the morning was to Ackroyd's, a Scotch bakery/market replete with bridies, bangers, kidney pie, a few desserts, and as you can see from all the stuff in the window, other edible goodies from Scotland.


Lastly...

Japan
I'm not a big fan of Japanese food (except for panko...looooove panko) or anime or the language so this one really didn't interest me. I did wonder, however, who would by the octopi tentacles that were sold in the meat area.


To round out this day of international adventure, I had dinner at Taco Bell. Seemed only right.



Shout outs go to Sage for actually saying something funny enough to make me use it as a blog entry title. :-)