Truly International
When you look southern Spain and the people that have chosen to make this lovely part of the world their home, you will notice how truly international it is with people from all over the world now living here.
Although the area has not lost its true Spanish identity, there are areas of expats from most European countries, Russia, Morocco and even as far afield as Thailand, India, China and beyond.
What this has done is add a magnificent variety of languages and cuisines, something that in the older days of the Costa del Sol, we not very common.
Now as you walk through the high streets of towns you will stumble across restaurants representing every corner of the world.
Asian restaurants are now in abundance from Japanese to Chinese, from Thai to Indian, you will find them all in almost every town.
Many people love to eat out but there is also a growing trend of home cooking, especially because of all the fabulous cookery shows that are now commonplace on TV. Favourites like Madhur Jaffrey, Ching He Huang and Ken Hom have shown us how to cook these Asian dishes in the west. Then you have some of the top English cooks and chefs like Jamie Oliver and Rick Stein travelling to far away places to experience the food and cooking techniques and bringing them back to teach us.
In the UK many supermarkets have jumped onto this trend and now stock a large variety of international ingredients from vegetables and herbs to spices and sauces. However, in Spain, although some supermarkets have got better at stocking some of the ingredients, many of the more obscure items can be difficult to find.
Well, if you live on the Costa del Sol we have a little secret for you. LEO Foods is an International cash and carry operating out of Nueva Andalucia in Marbella. They stock almost every Asian, Arabic and Latin American spice and ingredient, as well as a large stock of vegan and healthy food stuffs and products.
They are also one of the main wholesalers to the restaurant trade, so they really do have a huge choice of products. Walking around the shop is like being in Aladdin’s cave.
