A taste of the world …

Small shops nestled throughout Chicago and its suburbs carry foods from around the world, giving us a taste of many cultures. We not only find some great eats in these markets but learn about the dining traditions of lands far away.

Here are six shops worth visiting. Yes, there are so many more, we know. Please tell us about your favorite ethnic markets; send an e-mail to [email protected]. We’ll share some of your suggestions in the coming months.

Greek

Brillakis Domestic & Imported Foods

9061-65 N. Cortland Drive at Milwaukee Avenue, Niles

847-966-1250

Turning into the parking lot off Milwaukee Avenue, you might be tempted to pull a U-turn. By the looks of the sign and the front window, there is little clue that this is anything but another strip-mall market.

Shove open the front door, though, and you’ll catch a few phrases in Greek. You know you’ve just wandered into the real deal. Keep wandering. Head to the deli counter. Ask for a chunk of feta, the imported stuff, the way it ought to taste.

Now, stroll near the ice cream case. That’s where Pauline Brillakis, one half of the ma-and-pa owner team, stacks her tins of koulouria, the twisted butter cookies that brought a tear to my eye.

On the day we stopped by, Yianni Brillakis, the pa half of this duo, was off in Greece, scouting foodstuffs for his overstuffed shelves, so we didn’t get a taste of his made-from-scratch loukanika, the Greek sausage that draws customers from across the Wisconsin border. According to those hungry folk, you won’t find finer first-press olive oils or kalamata olives or any of the hard-to-find imported cheeses: kasseri, vlahotiri or kefalograviera.

You’d never know the Brillakises didn’t set out to launch a destination Greek market. When they moved from the Old Country in 1960, they had their sights on a tailor shop. Eventually they bought one, along with a building that had a grocery. When they decided in 1980 to move to Niles, they put the businesses up for sale and decided whichever one sold first, they’d keep the other. Sure enough, the tailor shop sold, so they moved the grocery to Niles, where they have been happy ever since.

–Barbara Mahany

Mexican

La Union Supermarket

485 Sheridan Rd., Highwood

847-926-8340

It is for Maria, Elva and Alberto, the trio bent over the stove in the back corner of this Highwood grocery, that you should dash along Sheridan Road to just south of the old Ft. Sheridan. Their names — first names only are all you ever need in this friendly spot — should be in lights, the three of them who make such magic from that stove, the griddle and the chopping board.

In fact, La Union could use a traffic cop come dinner time, or Saturday mornings when the menudo’s bubbling in the pot. Those are the busy hours, when car after car turns into the lot and out leap hungry souls who know they’ll be duly sated.

Gilbert Bustillos and the sisters Elva Sandoval and Hilda Pina bought the store 11 years ago. Elva’s pork ribs in red or green sauce, Maria’s mole, Alberto’s menudo and carnitas — all made from scratch each day — will have you lock your GPS unit into return mode. In addition to the shelves stocked with every Mexican sweet and savory (and household necessity) you might yearn for, the sizzles from the stove will draw you to this heavenly culinary corner. And the prices are hardly North Shore; you can easily feed four for about $20. A platter of tacos carnitas is $1.29.

Bustillos says, “This was my American dream, to open a Mexican store with a kitchen.”

Good thing for all of us that the dream came true, right here in the middle of America.

–Barbara Mahany

African

Chika Market

522 E. Boughton Rd., Bolingbrook

630-739-7799

Step into Chika Market. Rhythmic music pumps from the sound system. Shelves are piled to the ceiling. The aromas of dried codfish and mackerel greet your sniffer.

“When you come in, you smell it,” says owner Chika Muoghalu, of the popular dried fish products. Close your eyes. You could be in a market in Ghana, Kenya or Muoghalu’s homeland of Nigeria.

Actually, you’ll be in Bolingbrook, in Muoghalu’s 10-year-old shop, which she transplanted from Westmont five years ago. From her post at the cash register, Muoghalu cajoles and caters to customers who once called Benin, Togo, Rwanda, Burundi, Liberia, Sierra Leone or Jamaica home. So, you’ll find fresh yams from Ghana the size of a woman’s forearm, and bammy, the flatbread used to scoop up savory stews in Jamaica. Carved African stools sit atop shelves. Hand-lettered signs at the meat counter boast salted pig tail, goat meat and goat meat with skin.

“Different regions like it without the skin,” explains Muoghalu.

The produce bins flash with the red, orange and green of scotch bonnet peppers and green and yellow plantains, and are piled with ginger root knobs and coarse-skinned yams. Boxes and huge bags of fufu (flour made from plantain, rice, yam or potato) are ready for mixing into the classic side dish that’s like mashed potatoes. Sauces and sips fill shelves and coolers: jars of bright red palm oil, jerk seasonings, Esther’s Ready Stew (mild, $3.49) and malt beverages, including Vita Malt and a brewed-in-Ghana Guinness Malta ($1.99) whose label promises “Goodness. Energy. Vitality.”

–Judy Hevrdejs

Chinese

Hunan Market

More Top Picks Cone

673 N. Cass Ave., Westmont

630-321-9383

A Jewel parking lot dominates one corner of Cass and Ogden Avenues. Just north sits another world. In a strip mall that’s home to Big Suchir Indo-Pak Grocery, Shree (vegetarian restaurant), Katy’s Dumpling House, and Lil’ M.A.D. Gourmet Shop, you’ll find Hunan Market. The Zhou family (Yangu Zhou and Yanhui Zhang with their daughter Frances Zhou) opened the store in 2002.

“Our size is small, but we have the fresh meat and live fish,” says Frances Zhou. “Some stores only have dry stuff.”

Fresh produce is limited, but head to the back of the store where tilapia, grass carp and big-mouth bass swim in tanks near the meat counter. Along the way, check out aisles stacked with shelf-stable goods (dried squid, dried noodles, etc.) and too many sauces and vinegars to count. Soy products are fresh, marinated and fermented. Chilies are plentiful, in part because the Zhous hail from China’s Hunan region, noted for its spicy fare.

The staff is friendly, but conversation might be a challenge. Be ready to read labels, because it’s tough to figure out what some packaged foods are — until you find the English translations on the labels. Don’t let that stop you. Grab a snack: a can of Hello Boss milk tea (99 cents) or a bag of Liquorice Watermelon Seeds ($3). Peek in the freezers: You’ll find dumpling wrappers and prepared dumplings (filled with combinations of mushroom and spinach, pork and leek), as well as birthday “peach” buns (tiny balls of dough filled with sweetened red bean, tinted with pink and garnished with a leaf to resemble peaches). Or try ice cream-like bars of purple yam, red bean or green tea ($2.19 for 4 bars).

–Judy Hevrdejs

Lithuanian

Racine Bakery

6216 S. Archer Ave., Chicago

773-581-8500

racinebakery.com

Although all types of Eastern European foods are available at the small Garfield Ridge storefront establishment, the Racine Bakery’s pedigree is basically Lithuanian.

Dana (pronounced Donna) Kapacinskas has owned the store for 25 years, 20 at the current location. Poles, Ukrainians, Latvians and Russians are regulars, but Lithuanians and Lithuanian fare are in the majority.

Half the store is dedicated to baked goods; the other half is a well-stocked deli.

In the former, the most popular items are the dark breads, rye, pumpernickel, sunflower rye. There’s also a large selection of cookies ($7 a pound) and spectacularly colorful cakes ($10 to $78). Not to be missed is the apple tart ($7, think of a large apple pie without the top crust), but among the highlights of any visit are the bacon buns (50 cents). Each about the size of a small orange, they feature a finely chopped bacon-and-onion mixture encased in a sweet dough. Don’t leave without at least two dozen.

The deli section has a few shelves loaded with Lithuanian and Polish products: pickles, candies, preserves and the like. There’s one showcase with nothing but cheese. Another showcase is for meats and treats: Lithuanian sausage ($2.79 a pound), potato sausage ($4.29 a pound) and balandeliai (cabbage rolls, $1.95 each). The star of the deli, though, is the kugelis ($3 a pound), a potato casserole studded with bacon bits. For additional wow factor, try a cepelinai ($2.29), a grapefruit-size potato dumpling with a beef filling and pieces of crisp bacon sprinkled on top. It also can be ordered in a vegetarian version.

–William Hageman

Vietnamese

Viet Hoa Oriental Grocery Store

1051 W. Argyle St., Chicago

773-334-1028

Many Asian markets line Argyle Street, so why choose Viet Hoa? This small supermarket seems to have a bit of everything, from gleaming fresh fish half-buried in ice to meats vended by three bustling butchers and dozens if not hundreds of kinds of dried noodles. The store is packed with products from floor to ceiling.

“We squeeze everything in with minimal display. You want it, we have it,” says owner Joseph Trinh. His father opened Viet Hoa in 1978, making it the first Vietnamese-Chinese supermarket on the block.

Vietnamese and Chinese ingredients are most obvious, but you can find sweet brown rice from Korea, Japanese noodles, Thai curry paste and bottles of sugar cane vinegar from the Philippines. Fifty-pound sacks of rice are stacked high, and plastic bags as big as queen-size pillow cases are stuffed with skinny dried chili peppers from China.

For those used to fishing out their fish from a supermarket freezer or refrigerator case, Viet Hoa’s lively seafood section might come as a surprise. Dozens of deep purple crawfish energetically try to climb over the walls of their large plastic bin. In three boxes nearby, crabs sputter in impotent protest at their captivity. Behind the crabs, the butcher case is piled high with beef. Three butchers man the counter on a Saturday morning. A produce clerk dashes out of the back room with a large mound of rau lang, or sweet potato leaves, which he arranges in a large plastic tub. A short distance away is a box of sweet potatoes, with one tuber cut open to show off the deep orange flesh. As one would expect, the produce section specializes in Asian greens, herbs, roots and vegetables.

Viet Hoa offers free customer parking right outside the store. The Argyle Red Line station is a short block away.

–Bill Daley