Not Your Average Supermarket: A guest post, by Healthy Sous-Chef Partyologist, Lea Bowen

I have always been fascinated by grocery stores and markets of all types. When I travel to a new city, state or country, inevitably one of the stops on my travel itinerary is a trip to a food store or open air market. I will buy a bottle of mineral water or a chocolate bar, simply because the label is written in a foreign language. I often get teased by people who know me well, that I have more photographs of food than of my children. So, it was a pleasant surprise to find that there was a local market overflowing with more foreign language packaging and photo-ops than I could have ever hoped for.

Being a proud inhabitant of the outskirts of metro Atlanta, I had never had the opportunity to visit the Buford Highway Farmer’s Market prior to several weeks ago when Piedmont Cancer Wellness sponsored a tour of the store. I was fortunate enough to take a V.I.P. tour of the market with our generous and knowledgeable tour guide, Bill Schroeder. We spent an hour in the abundant produce department and were allowed to taste some of the exotic fruits and vegetables. This visit also led to an opportunity for Chef Nancy to teach a healthy cooking class in the market’s new teaching kitchen.

Our first class was this week. We were able to do all of the shopping right there in the store and prep and serve the food in the store’s kitchen/classroom. It was a great pleasure to meet some new people and share a healthy menu with the class participants and cooking assistants, River and Marquis, who are pictured above.

I hope that a trip to the Buford Highway Farmer’s Market in Doraville will find a place on your upcoming travel itinerary. I assure, that you will not be disappointed with the selection of fresh produce, baked goods, seafood and world of international food products.