Nibbles: Foodie’s Aurora tour boasts kim chi, hambasha with awaze, pupusas ‘n’ pie

What do you give the serious foodie who has tasted and cooked just about everything?

For her recent birthday, I gave a friend an afternoon of authentic culinary experiences in Aurora. A photographer friend came along to capture the highlights such as when I found a bag of shitake mushrooms bigger than my head at the Korean-focused M Mart (Midopa Oriental Market) at 2000 S. Havana St.

Its vibrant aisles were claustrophobically lined with every kind of soy sauce, noodle and pork belly variation you can imagine along with gallon jars of ten kinds of kim chi and interesting green baked goods. I found some sweet stocking stuffers and miso packets for soup on a frigid December afternoon.

All that shopping made us hungry for Eritrean cuisine that we found at the incense-scented Meskerem Restaurant, open four months at 1121 S. Peoria St. Eritrean fare is a regional variation that tends to be a little spicier than Ethiopian cuisine.

We commenced with Ethiopia-brewed Hakim Stout (really a dark beer) and hoppy St. George’s Lager, jalapeno-spiked, pastry-wrapped veggie sambusas, and hambasha, a yeasted wheat bread served with awaze, an amazing smoky-fiery spice dip.

The main dish platter lined with dark, thin injera (spongey flatbread) was topped with vegetable and lentil stews as well as a warm beef stew. We left wanting to try everything on the menu.

Next stop was a revelation. At mid-afternoon on a Sunday, the parking lot at Mi Pueblo Market, 15585 E. Colfax Ave., is absolutely, double-parked jammed. Inside there was a long line waiting for take-out Mexican and Latin American fare in one corner.

In the produce department I found fresh garbanzo beans in the husk, a veggie I’d never seen or tasted before. The aisles were jammed with customers finding ingredients essential to Mexican regional cooking, and Salvadoran, Honduran and Jamaican fare. I grabbed some spicy, cheese-filled bread rolls from the bakery and vowed to return for a plate of pupusas.

Finally, we stopped in for excellent coconut pie, sweet potato pie … and a little fried chicken at Flava, 15343 E. 6th Ave. But before we could get in the door, my friend noticed Lagos International Market across the parking lot so she ran off to check out fermented Nigerian cornmeal.

We drove back feeling like we’d traveled very far with only our mouths as our passports.

FOOD NEWS UPDATE

Cheapskates Action Sports Bar and restaurant has opened at 627 S. Parker Rd. in Aurora. … Five Colorado wineries earned 18 medals at the annual Jefferson Cup Invitational, which honors wine from all of America’s wine regions not just California, Oregon and Washington. Winners were Bookcliff Vineyards, Anemoi, Boulder Creek Winery, Canyon Wind Cellars and The Winery at Holy Cross Abbey. … Mali Thai Cuisine opened recently, serving fare from Bangkok at 4955 S. Ulster St. in the Denver Tech Center.

ON THE MENU

Note to self: Just because you see a sign offering pie doesn’t mean you have to buy it. Such was the case when I — confession alert — drove through McDonald’s to grab coffee and an egg McMuffin. The sign said: Holiday Pie. To save you from having to taste it, I bought one. It arrived warm in a cardboard tray, just like McDonald’s apple pies. The minimal amount of tasteless crust contained a filling that tasted like warm, thick, raw white cake batter … and not in a good way. I don’t want to be too harsh or judgmental, but McDonald’s Holiday Pie is an abomination.

Speaking of horrors, Torani — the company that makes flavoring syrups for coffee, has introduced Torani Chicken ‘n Waffles Syrup. A tasty syrup to pour on that wonderful brunch dish would be welcomed. Unfortunately, this syrup is actually artificially flavored with buttermilk waffle, fried chicken and maple syrup. What would you conceivably put that on … or in?

Listen: I’ll taste anything as part of my job as a food critic, but I won’t taste that.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

“There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea.” — Henry James, “The Portrait of a Lady”

Read more Nibbles at aurorasentinel.com/colorado-table. Send comments and questions to: jlehndorff@aurorasentinel.com. Be sure to visit (and like) the Nibbles Facebook page. John Lehndorff hosts Radio Nibbles at 8:25 a.m. Thursdays on KGNU (88.5 FM, 1390 AM, and kgnu.org).