Immigrant Advantage

Living in Durham has great benefits. Not just that we have a world class university, or access to the best medical care, but those are important. It’s the large number of immigrants and the variety of foods they bring.  
Today I was cooking a dish for international day at Carter’s school. I needed corn tortillas. Not a mile from my house is a Mexican tortilleria where they make tortillas fresh all day. I used to drive to northern Durham to get fresh tortillas, but my friend Maricela, who is Mexican told me about this place, which is so much closer to my house. Not only are they closer, but the warm tortillas are cheaper at about $1.20 per pound, which is about a dozen tortillas.
It’s not just Mexican food that is available close by. A couple of stores away is a very fine Indian grocery store where I get big bags of red lentils less than half the price from the regular grocery store. Across the street is Li Ming, an Asian grocery superstore. Russ stocks up on frozen dumplings from his favorite Brooklyn dumpling maker there.
If Durham did not have so many people from across the world we would not have access to these specialty grocers where I love to shop. Walking the aisles of these stores is like going on a trip. I find ingredients I might have read about or eaten while traveling, but are not stocked at the Harris Teeter. Not only are can I get a better garam masala at the Indian store it is half the price.
Please God don’t let the current administration scare off people from far off lands with more interesting cuisines. They are not just good for our economy, but are better for our palettes.