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The ultimate comfort food in Vietnam? Fried tofu. And VN Tofu Food To Go, a new shop on South Boulevard, just might make you a fan.

Walk inside the old red-brick Mecklenburg County Market in Dilworth and you can feel for a moment like you are in Switzerland or Germany.

“Back in Bosnia, there’s a cevapi place on every corner,” says Dino Mehic, proprietor of the new Euro Grill & Café on Central Avenue in east Charlotte. “It’s the traditional, No. 1 Bosnian food.”

Just off I-85 near Westfield Eastridge Mall, you can get a taste of El Salvador.

If you wait all year for Charlotte’s annual Greek Festival in early September, right now you are likely saying “Where can I get a taste of that pastry before next fall?”

José Rodriguez’s bright white chef’s coat, proudly embroidered with his name, is the first clue that the deli inside the Galaxy Foods supermarket on Arrowood Road is something special. El Rinconcito – “the little corner” in Spanish – is a place to discover carefully prepared dishes from Honduras.

As today’s New South draws newcomers from around the world, food traditions are meeting and mingling. Just take a look at the little bakery selling Oriental steamed buns at Charlotte’s Super G Mart.

Tom Hanchett
Tom Hanchett is staff historian at Levine Museum of the New South.