Let’s talk foreign supermarkets.

Part of the joy of travelling (for me) is browsing shelves packed with unfamiliar foods. Not as sexy as sunny market stalls, but equally exciting for the dedicated foodie on tour.

Living in London, I could walk to a multitude of mini marts stuffed with provisions from a range of different countries. Living in Hertfordshire, my grocery shopping is generally limited to standard supermarket chains.

bagel-ish rolls

Maybe a distant cousin of our favourite rolls with a hole...?

So it was a joy to discover a world of international inspiration only a few miles from home in Hatfield.

The revelation was as a result of my having volunteered to help bake for a Mitzvah Day. My synagogue, St Albans Masorti (SAMS) will be hosting a Ukrainian cultural event, an opportunity for Ukrainian refugees hosted by members of our congregation to share their culture with us.

My brief had been to come up with a Ukrainian bake (or two) plus a more traditionally English one. First port of call was my copy of Olia Hercules’s fabulous cookbook, Mamushka.

I picked three potential recipes which fitted my need for authentic but economical to bake. Fortunately, traditional bakes from her country seemed mostly made from simple ingredients. A throwback to the Soviet era, she writes.

twarog for cheeesecake

PSA: You need this for authentic Eastern European cheesecake

The problem was sourcing a key ingredient for two of the recipes — Polish twaróg aka Polish farmers’ cheese. Google had told me it’s available in every supermarket. It wasn’t. And it turns out there’s more than one type.

Local friend Ren Behan (author of Polish cookbook Wild Honey and Rye) advised me to head to Maja, a Polish supermarket in Hatfield, and look for a twaróg specifically made for cheesecake baking.

Not only did they stock the exact cheese I needed for the bakes, but all manner of goodies. Creamy smetana — which I remember my Grandma Doris eating for lunch most days; crunchy dill pickles; sweet berry jams and dark rye loaves plus shelf upon shelf of other Polish products.

jarred spinach

Jars of colourful veggies that you don't see in Sainsbury's

And just around the corner I discovered Europa supermarket — an even bigger emporium of foods from all over the continent. Colourful jars of vegetables; biscuits filled with fruit creams; endless varieties of cookies; huge amounts of halva; endless freezers filled with interesting packs of filled dumplings and in the bakery section, circular bread rolls like thin bagels and what looked like cheese on toasted baguettes.

All the benefits of a trip abroad without the expensive miles.

(Turns out Maja is a small chain with branches across the UK - more info here. And if you fancy a Hatfield mini break, check out Europa supermarket here.)