Quarantine Picnic

I initially wanted to try out Sichuanese Spiced Cucumber Salad by alc, which seemed quick to prepare and full of flavor, two of the requirements for a picnic dish. The recipe requires dried chilies and a whole Sichuan pepper. At home in Queens, we can easily find these ingredients at the basic C-Town or at one of the specialty food stores nearby. In Plymouth, I realized this wasn’t the case. Most of the Plymouth grocery stores had very basic offerings, while others hosted a dismal “ethnic/international” food aisle. Maybe this isn’t surprising, but after living in New York for the past decade, you become accustomed to the plethora of cultures and cuisines available in any part of town – the entire local C-Town is basically an international food store. More troubling is the fact that these suburban “ethnic food aisles” merge Chinese, Thai, Indian, Mexican, Italian, Turkish and a variety of other cuisines into a single cramped lane. Merging these wildly different cuisines into one category groups them all as unspecified “otherness.” While I understand that perhaps these products are less desired in the suburbs, I wonder if they were simply integrated with everything else, new audiences could discover them. I also feel that without honoring each individual culture, it becomes harder to understand the nuances and specifities of each one. It made me realize that there is an opportunity with Little Chefs and food in general, to combine international flavors in new ways while learning about their origins. As a vegetarian, I find this a creative and thoughtful challenge.