Yesterday, I dipped deep into the melting pot and didn’t have to venture far from my zip code to do it.

 

A newscaster had noted that the election of a black president signaled that America is indeed a melting pot – rather than a cruet of oil and vinegar. It prompted me to have a little epicurean celebration of my own.

 

For lunch it was the special at Mi Tierra, a Dominican restaurant off Bonney Road in Virginia Beach. From a steaming buffet table, a cook heaped fall-apart tender braised pork with chunks of crispy skin served with a heap of seasoned rice and pigeon peas and a taste of stewed goat on the side, all for $6. I washed it down with a Diet Coke – how’s that for a melting pot!

 

Later in the day, with an hour to kill (while the baby girl took her ice skating lesson), I ventured into a Mediterranean market on Virginia Beach Boulevard near Haynes that I’d driven past many times. To my surprise, Leila’s is a complete eatery and market. I came home with a big jar of “navet marinee weibe ruben sauer eingelegt inlagda rovor” or pickled turnips ($3.65) and a 19-ounce jar of “hot ajvar,” or spicy vegetable spread ($4.25). I have no idea what either tastes like, but how else to cozy up to a cuisine? I’m thinking appetizers at a Friday night dinner we’re planning.

 

Then, with just a few minutes more until the baby girl’s lesson ended, I swerved into a spot that I’ve seen a hundred times, yet again have never ventured into – Swagat Health Food & Spices. It’s a 7-Eleven-sized market with everything Indian, from curious vegetables to pre-packaged soups and grains and yogurts. One long shelf holds packages of seasoning mixes for fruits, grains and meat. Each package has illustrated directions in English. I’ll soon be serving “chicken sukha,” chicken marinated in yogurt and seasoned with garlic, ginger, chili, turmeric, lemon and other spices. The packet was $2.95, which seems a great way to get acquainted with cooking Indian cuisine. And the cashier supplied the name of an Indian woman who gives cooking lessons. Sign me up!

 

That would have been plenty of melting pot for one day, but the baby girl wanted to stop at our neighborhood Asian market for one of her favorite post-skating treat: a red bean ice cream sandwich in the shape of a fish. And here’s the kicker: we had to drive by a Filipino bakery to get there and a British market to get back home.