Ethnic markets bring the world’s flavors to the Mohawk Valley

Jan 30, 2011
By CASSAUNDRA BABER
Observer-Dispatch (Utica, New York, USA)

UTICA — There are a few things Cambodian-born Kenneth Sar misses about his native country.

The warm weather is one, said the 40-year-old Utica resident as he smiles and shrugs down into his puffy winter jacket.

The food is another, he said while shopping in Lucky Mey’s, a market on Oneida Street dedicated solely to Asian foods.

Lucky Mey’s is one of several ethnic markets popping up around Utica in recent years. The store opened in 2010 when owner Socheatar Mey, a refugee from Cambodia, realized a need among her peers.

“I think a lot of Asian people, refugee people from Burma, Vietnam, Cambodia, this is good for them to have Asian food that is hard to find in this area,” said Mey.

As the city becomes more diverse, due in large part to the influx of refugee groups from Bosnia, Burma, Somalia and other countries, it makes sense that storefronts will display that growth, said Peter Vogelaar, executive director of the Mohawk Valley Resource Center for Refugees.

“You have markets popping up because the emerging ethnic communities are looking for sources of foods they are familiar with,” Vogelaar said. “It’s the old New York City style — the corner store where you’re looking for what you’re comfortable and familiar with.”

Their emergence is, furthermore, evidence that these groups are committed to the area’s viability and economic success, Vogelaar said.

“They want Utica to succeed just as much as you and I want Utica to succeed, and then they bring with them the drive and desire,” Vogelaar said. “They’re committed to the future of this community While newer markets are evidence of the new groups making Utica their home, specialty food markets aren’t new to the area. Markets specializing in Polish and Italian foods have long been staples in Utica’s neighborhoods – and still are.

Take for example Pulaski Meat Market, a corner market on Lenox Avenue that’s made West Utica home for nearly 40 years.

Christine Guzda was 16 years old when her parents, John and Irene Bulawa, opened the market. John Bulawa learned the trade in Poland before immigrating to Buffalo and then to Utica. After working at local butcher shops for years, he saved enough money to open his own shop, Guzda said.

Made up mostly of Polish immigrants, neighbors became their customers. The family of six lived above the market; Guzda’s mother learned English by dealing with the shop’s customers.

“It’s a relationship,” Guzda said of the owners and their customers. “It’s that kind of special market.”

Many of the people Guzda knew as a teenager have since left the neighborhood, but the market still thrives, she said.

“Now there are more Russian, Ukrainian, Bosnian – that’s how things have changed,” Guzda said, pointing to the clientele that ranges from refugees to neighbors to suburban shoppers who make special trips for the family’s well-known handmade sausages, kielbasa, hand-rolled peirogis and stuffed cabbage. “We still have people we’ve known for the whole time who shop here. They’re like family.”

The newer markets have a similar feel and business style as the longstanding markets, such as Pulaski’s, said Mohawk Valley Chamber of Commerce President Frank Elias.

“They do it often with their families, often in locations that are very close to their homes,” Elias said. “And they’re clustered in neighborhoods within walking distance of their homes.”

The markets – old and new – provide an account of Utica’s diverse history when it comes to immigrants and ethnic groups making the small city home. But their presence – and popularity – today speaks to the area’s progressiveness in being a city that will attract people of all groups, Vogelaar said.

“This is who we are as Utica, NY,” he said. “It’s an opportunity to draw people from all over the place.”

For Jessica Mulet-Retamar, mother of three, the area’s diversity – whether food or people – makes it incredibly attractive for raising her children.

“I try honestly to embrace as many cultures as I can just because the city is so diverse, and I try to get my kids to be open to different people, which is so crucial with us being Hispanic,” said Mulet-Retamar, who shops at various ethnic markets at least once a week. “We have Bosnian friends, Vietnamese friends, and I want (my kids) to understand what is behind their culture.”

The quality of food, likewise, is attractive, she said.

“The amount of full-fledged 100-percent organic material is amazing,” she said, talking about how she asks the store workers to translate the ingredients on the packages for her. “It’s amazing the difference in the quality. We have so many more preservatives in our stuff.”

That level of quality, plus lower prices and diverse products, has kept 24-year-old Alyssa Stock returning to Lucky Mey’s for two years.

Through the market, she said she’s been able to expand her palate and daily eating options.

“The Internet has opened up that you can cook anything you want at any time,” said Stock, who added that she appreciates the healthier alternative of Asian cooking. “It allows people I think to bring a lot of new tastes to the every day cooking.”

Through the market, Stock has been introduced to ingredients such lemongrass, lime leaves, galangal (like ginger) – flavorings that have become the base of many of the recipes she creates. Being able to find uncommon vegetables, such as lotus root and Thai eggplant is equally as attractive for Stock.

“For me, this creates a way for me to cook more healthfully using more vegetables and fewer flavorings,” she said.