We love to travel– around the country or around the world. Food is a big part of the travel experience. Wherever you go, each place has its favorite flavors, traditional dishes, signature sweets and unique ingredients. But you don’t always have to get on a plane to taste flavors from afar.

There are stores all over our area that specialize in the foods of far away places, geared up to serve local expat communities with imported foods and dishes from home. They also welcome curious culinary explorers like me with lots of questions and a hunger for new flavors and are happy to explain and describe their seemingly exotic wares. Given the recent weather, cold and snowy Northern Europe seemed to be the place to start.

A taste of Europe on Westport Ave. takes on the large portfolio of Eastern European countries including Poland, Germany, Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, and Romania. The shelves are crammed with mustards, pickles, candy and more labeled in consonant-heavy languages. Anna took time to tell me about each of the fresh sausages available and insisted I try the fresh Russian-style pastries. A jar of pickled herring from Poland (I think) with a label too exotic to resist and a lingering look at the tempting array of mustards was all I could handle. The utilitarian store provides everyday comfort foods to expats far from home and welcomes the culinarily inquisitive too.

The Scandinavian Butik on Main Ave. in Norwalk stocks supplies from Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Denmark. The sleek, contemporary space displays candy, baked goods, pickles and preserves with enticing names like cloudberries and gooseberries, and fruit syrups. Lingonberries, a Scandinavian staple, come in both small jars and big tubs for everyday use. Herring in many preparations, caviars and canned fish speak to the region’s seafaring tradition. Cheese, meats, and grains cover the kitchen staples. Candy and sweets are a big category, including licorice that is beloved at home, but rather strong for American taste. Partners Marianne and Doris bake regional specialties like Danish Rugbrød and Swedish cardamom bread; make Danish leverpostej (liver pate) that is a household staple, “as common as peanut butter for Americans”; and prepare both Swedish meatballs and Danish Frikadeller. The store is a local and regional destination with customers coming from all over New England and as far afield as Maryland, especially at the holidays. The Butik has an extensive website with an active mail order business. Wednesday through Saturday they serve lunch menu with a selection of typical open faced sandwiches.

The Dutch are gathering at A Taste of Holland in South Norwalk to revel in the success of their skaters at the Winter Olympics. At the same time, they’re picking up chocolate, candy, cookies, and wonderful Dutch cheese (I’ve been going for the aged Gouda for years) – tastes of home! There is also a section of Indonesian Specialties – a nod to the influence of Holland’s colonial past. In addition to food supplies, there is also collectible Delft Pottery, traditional wooden shoes and gifts from home. Like the other specialty stores, there is an active web site (partially in Dutch) and a busy internet mail order business serving the Dutch community around the U.S. On Washington St. for more than 20 years, it’s an anchor of the SoNo retail community.

Each of these stores brings favorite foods for a taste of home to people far away. There is a common theme of candies, cookies, preserves and sweets in good supply at all the stores. These packaged goodies travel well and evoke the pleasures and luxuries of home. Fresh food is hard to transport and store, but they offer what they can.

After a week of exploration, we had a delicious Northern European buffet supper. Danish dark bread and liver spread, Polish pickled herring, Dutch aged cheese, cucumber salad and milk chocolate, Swedish cardamom bread and smoked salmon along with some German dark beer – a big spread, but we only scratched the surface. I can’t wait to go back for more.

Taste of Europe – 203-846-9668
239 Westport Ave, Norwalk
www.tram-shop.com

Scandinavian Butik 203-529-3244
349 Main Ave, Norwalk
www.scandinavianbutik.com

A Taste Of Holland 203-838-6161
83 Washington Ave, South Norwalk
www.Kaasnco.com