Buy local – eat global!

Buy local – eat global!

A one-stop global tour for the tastebuds is on offer at new multi-ethnic grocery store – Summerfields Foods, on Waimari Road, Ilam.

Unfazed by the global economic crisis, Karl and Fiona Summerfield are making it simple to tackle recipes from all over the world – by putting the ingredients under one roof.

They stock a huge range of herbs and spices at the heart of ethnic dishes, as well as “quick meal” packs containing all the necessary flavouring ingredients – plus the recipe, of course! All that needs to be added is the meat or vegetables.

"We love cooking and trying recipes from all over the world but it was frustrating not knowing which shop would have what we needed, and driving all over town to find ingredients," Karl says.

"We used to joke about needing a shop that had ingredients from everywhere in one place and then a friend said, ‘why don't you do it?’."

The couple, with two young children, admit the economic climate prompted some careful planning before they took the plunge and opened the store on September 8.

“We did some serious thinking when the credit crunch hit but we thought it might work us," Fiona says. “People may be eating out less but they still want to enjoy good, interesting food. We want to give people access to authentic ethnic meals – plus the fun of cooking it themselves.”

The couple have spent four years refining recipes and the ingredients required and are thrilled to be the first retailer in the South Island to stock Herbies Spices from Sydney's spice guru Ian Hemphill.

“When all the ingredients you need are handy, these recipes are actually pretty quick and easy,” Karl says. “We reckon you can have a delicious meal in under 30 minutes with most of our quick meal packs.”

The location in the Ilam shops is an area familiar with the couple who met at Canterbury university, just up the road.

Karl's has always enjoyed cooking, convincing his mother in the 1980s to hunt out olive oil so he could make recipes from books he found in the library. More recently he has made his own bacon, cheese and gorseflower champagne.

And the food business is in the blood for Fiona, whose grandparents were tomato
growers in Beckenham for many years.

ENDS

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