January 21, 2104--Foodtown

Foodtown in West Palm Beach is not to be confused with all the Foodtown supermarkets in the northeast. The latter are traditional supermarkets selling everything from paper towels to Campbell soups; the former, in South Florida, is anything but.

Unless you are Jamaican, Haitian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indian, Pakistani, Mexican, Honduran, Peruvian, Taiwanese, Sri Lankan, or Brazilian, this is not necessarily the place for you. That is unless you want a fascinating shopping experience or are looking for a special type and brand of Ceylonese tea.

In regard to tea, if you want to gain a picture of the New America, by far the most diverse country in the history of the world, spend a half hour, as we did on Sunday, in the 30-yard-long tea aisle in Foodtown West Palm where literally hundreds of different kinds of tea and many dozens of brands are on display.

Rona was searching for Ahmed English Afternoon tea. And found it at Foodtown after striking out in half-a-dozen other ethnic food markets.

But if you were searching for that special Ceylonese tea, you had these among other choices--

Black Vanilla
Earl Grey
English Breakfast
Green Jazzy Mint
Green Raspberry
Passion Fruit
Mango
Super Pekoe Black Tea
Oolong
Vanilla Roobius
Pomegranate White
Ginger Peach Roobius
Lemon Spice
Cranberry
Royal Elixer
Pu Erh
Chai Teas
Herbal
Ceylon Sonata
Darjeerling
Saint James
Nilgiri
Dimbula
Kenilworth
Uva
Nuwara Eliya
And, of course, Ceylon Blend

Then, from India, there was . . .

While wandering among a literal world of foods, including pork brains, I wondered what might be available from Sri Lanka.

Rona reminded me that Sri Lanka is the former Ceylon; but that, when if comes to food, Ceylon, not Sri Lanka, is still on the map.