On a recent trip to Minneapolis, my son and I stopped at the Little India store to see if we could find sumac for a recipe we were trying out. Unfortunately, they did not have it. The kind woman told us we needed to go to “the holy land.” She pointed in a direction which in my mind I took to mean east. (I’m not very good with directions though so it could have been west, north or south.)
At the counter, my son showed the cashier a picture of what sumac looked like to see if he could determine if they carried it. He told us “You  need to go to the holy land” then pointed in the same direction as the woman had pointed.
I figured we were out of luck in getting this spice. My son, a more resourceful fellow, checked his iPhone to see that there was a store 6 blocks away that is called The Holy Land.
(I didn’t tell my son about my misunderstanding until much later in the week when I could look back and laugh at my ignorance.)
We were able to find the sumac at Holy Land. They have quite an array of Mediterranean spices and food. There is also a meat counter and a deli.
Much to my delight, one of my favorite cheeses called Kasseri (which is really hard to find) was looking straight up at me as I checked out all the cheeses. A small chunk came home with me.
While we were here, we stopped for gyro sandwiches at the deli. They were delicious and very large. The french fries were “okay.”
I’m finding that Minneapolis is quite diverse. So far we have been able to find every spice we’ve been looking for. And the neighborhood near the India Store and Holy Land have lots of different types of restaurants, ie Afghanistan, Mexican, Salvadoran, etc.
Holy Land is located at 2513 Central Avenue Northeast in Minneapolis.
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